Cattle egret in Hawaii

Cattle egrets are native to Africa, parts of Eurasia, and Australia, but that hasn't kept them from making their way to distant lands such as North America and, as I witnessed, Hawaii.  I found that they were not present in heavily urbanized areas, but large fields would find numerous birds prowling the grounds for tasty fare.  One popular location was frequented by small, hard white balls.  Golf courses.

We visited a farm as part of an excursion from the cruise we took.  I snuck away from the throng about me and headed to open range where I found both cattle and cattle egrets.  I quite liked the above photo as it shows the presence of both creatures, the blurred cow in the background symbolic of the birds' moniker.

Cattle egrets often associate with ungulates because the moving beasts stir up insects that are escaping being trampled.  The birds have a commensalistic relationship with bovines in that the birds benefit from the cow's presence but in no way help or harm the cattle.  I witnessed this interaction while photographing them.

I must have taken twenty or thirty photos; I also got a good shot of an egret in flight.  You can see that below.

Cattle egret in flight; photographed using 3d focus tracking with continuous focus lock.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com