Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Kuntul kerbau or buffalo egret or cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) is the smallest bird of the herons to about 50 cm long, likes to look for food in rice fields that are being hijacked or planted. This bird is leaner than Blekok sawah or Javan pond heron (Ardeola speciosa), although not as large as larger egrets.

B. ibis has white throughout the body, but during the mating season it has a yellow color on the head, neck, back and chest. This bird has a shorter neck, a rounder and thicker head, a beak about 9 cm or shorter than other herons. The beak is yellow and the legs are black.

When breeding it is good to live in a large tree with other herons. Their togetherness makes predators reluctant to approach. Birds nest in large colonies and like to live around rice fields, swamps, mangroves, swamps and grasslands to eat insects, frogs, eels, crabs, shrimp, snails, rats and snakes.

B. ibis likes to join with cows and buffaloes where in the afternoon small groups do fly low in a row towards the nest to rest in the big trees. These cosmopolitan animals often follow the activities of farmers who are plowing or processing land in the fields.

The cattle egrets remain residents of a tropical climate, but they also live in cold regions to immigrate to warmer areas after the breeding cycle. The long and extraordinary migration journey continues and often appears on remote islands in the Pacific.

One of the key factors for this bird expansion is adaptability. Although most egrets prey on aquatic animals, Kuntul kerbau prefer insects and have strong stamina. They crossed the Sahara to traverse 4000 km of West Africa and South America.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Genus: Bubulcus (Bonaparte, 1855)
Species: B. ibis

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