{"id":15894,"date":"2022-05-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=15894"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:56:13","slug":"white-herons-in-our-midst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/05\/04\/white-herons-in-our-midst\/","title":{"rendered":"White herons in our midst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Birders hope to see more cattle egrets this May<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Cattle egrets choose a new mate every season and use sticks to build untidy platform nests<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The cattle egret is a little white heron with global ambitions. It is familiar throughout the tropics and spreading in temperate regions \u2013 the species ranges over more of the world than any other land bird, with the possible exception of the barn owl. It has even turned up on the remote South Orkney Islands, which \u2013 as the egret flies \u2013 are not that far from Antarctica. And now the cattle egret appears to be colonising England.<\/p>\n\n

Cattle egrets have bred, or attempted to, in several English counties, often near the nests of little egrets or grey herons. For now, the breeding population is tiny, but birders hope to see more displaying birds this May and June. Cattle egrets look their best in breeding season, with long \u2018nuptial plumes\u2019 on their heads and backs and peachy tones in their snowy plumage. As their name suggests, they frequent herds of cows, feeding on insects and worms disturbed by the cattle.<\/p>\n\n

BH <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Photo: EGRET: OLIVER SMART<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birders hope to see more cattle egrets this May The cattle egret is a little white heron with global ambitions. It is familiar throughout the tropics and spreading in temperate regions \u2013 the species ranges over more of the world than any other land bird, with the possible exception of the barn owl. It has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"28","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"28","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_28-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_28-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"May-2022","purple_external_id":"May-2022-28-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"May-2022-28-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087231||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.491","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-05-06T07:44:44Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"ccfcedae-7c22-4c51-bc13-1b40cce23e48","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-05-11T11:56:19Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AzPztrnwiTFG8ExtAzOI-SA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680.jpg",1596,1591,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680-768x766.jpg",768,766,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680-1024x1021.jpg",800,798,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680-1536x1531.jpg",1536,1531,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/05\/L83S29A3FB23EW7P4C0CJHJQF680.jpg",1596,1591,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Birders hope to see more cattle egrets this May The cattle egret is a little white heron with global ambitions. It is familiar throughout the tropics and spreading in temperate regions \u2013 the species ranges over more of the world than any other land bird, with the possible exception of the barn owl. It has…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16427,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894\/revisions\/16427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}