Cattle Egret - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Cattle Egret was first described in 1758 by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae as Ardea ibis, but was moved to its current genus by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1855. Its genus name Bubulcus is Latin for herdsman, referring, like the English name, to this species' association with cattle. Ibis is a Latin and Greek word which originally referred to another white wading bird, the Sacred Ibis.

The Cattle Egret has two geographical races which are sometimes classified as full species, the Western Cattle Egret, B. ibis, and Eastern Cattle Egret, B. coromandus. The two forms were split by McAllan and Bruce, but were regarded as conspecific by almost all other recent authors until the publication of the influential Birds of South Asia. The eastern subspecies B. (i.) coromandus, described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783, breeds in Asia and Australasia, and the western nominate form occupies the rest of the species range, including the Americas. Some authorities recognise a third Seychelles subspecies, B. i. seychellarum, which was first described by Finn Salomonsen in 1934.

Despite superficial similarities in appearance, the Cattle Egret is more closely related to the genus Ardea, which comprises the great or typical herons and the Great Egret (A. alba), than to the majority of species termed egrets in the genus Egretta. Rare cases of hybridization with Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea, Little Egret Egretta garzetta and Snowy Egret Egretta thula have been recorded.