white birds

[HOSS]

I got some white birds hanging with the cow herd. I have not seen that in this part of Tennessee before. I have seen it in Florida though. The birds are like a cross between a duck and a seagull in looks. They are about seagull size, pure white with a curved neck like a duck. They stay right under the cows feet looking for insects I would think. Does anybody know what this species is? What are they called?

 

[dun]

Look anything like this?

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i2001id.html

 

[HOSS]

Look anything like this?

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i2001id.html

Sho nuff looks like what I got a pasture full of......who would have thunk they were egrets

 

[KenB]

I have alot of them this year as well, they were rare around my place in the past.
What is there normal range?

 

[Wewild]

I saw 4 birds like that this weekend. I can't recall seeing that many at one time. They have been visiting our blue crane.

 

[Lammie]

I have alot of them this year as well, they were rare around my place in the past.
What is there normal range?

I think they can range all the way from South America to Canada. I love them.

 

[grannysoo]

Everybody around here just calls them cowbirds. They eat their share of grasshoppers and are the early warning signal for army worms in the haypatch. Got to love them...

 

[Jogeephus]

Everybody around here just calls them cowbirds. They eat their share of grasshoppers and are the early warning signal for army worms in the haypatch. Got to love them...

Yeah, if they are piled up in your field and there are no cows around best be checking for worms. They like to come around when you are mowing too. Last year I was baling and they were eveywhere. One stepped behind a bale and there was a streak that came out of the air and a Cooper's Hawk dusted the egret right by the bale. Looked like it had been shot with # 4's from a full choke. Amazing sight.

 

[backhoeboogie]

We get egrets seasonally and welcome them. They will sit on the backs of cattle and eat parasites and well as hop on bugs that jump away from cattle as they move through the grass.

Some folks do call them cow birds and I don't know why. Cow birds are the lazy little black things with brown heads that lay their eggs in another bird's nest. http://www.audubon.org/bird/research/

 

[bigbull338]

thats a cow bird aka egrat.they love to get ticks an flies off cattle.