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Western Cattle Egrets are the medium-size egrets. Their plumage is all-white during the non-breeding season. For the breeding season they grow long, orange-brown scapular and frontal plumes, which extend to the head too. The straight yellow bill is short and thick, with prominent feathers under the lower mandible reminiscent of a "beard". The irises are yellow; the legs and feet are greenish-grey.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Cattle Egret is available HERE .

Having made the "jump" from Western Africa to South America in 1933, Western Cattle Egrets are now found on several continents. Initially found in Africa outside the Sahara desert, parts of the Arabian coastline (including the northern tip at the border between the UAE and Oman), towards Iran and Kazakhstan, and along parts of the Mediterranean coastline, they have now also colonized all of the Americas, up to the coastline of Ontario, but with the exception of the highest ranges of the Andes, the Rocky Mountains and the rest of Canada/Alaska.

In Arabia Western Cattle Egrets are found primarily in the border area of Kuwait, southern Iraq and south-western Iran and along the southern Red Sea coastline of western Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Some also spend the northern winters on the East coast of Arabia, e.g. in southern Oman, but they are also found along the North coast of Oman. If occasionally found inland, they may accompany camels (rather than only cattle).

Western Cattle Egrets are found in the shallows of various kinds of freshwater wetlands such as freshwater lakes and on grassland, often paddocks around cattle.

Race "ibis"