Cowback heron
Bubulcus ibis
Vertebrates, ornithischia, Storks, Herons, Cattleback Herons. It inhabits plain meadows, pastures, lakes, reservoirs, low landscapes, drylands and swamps, and mainly eats insects such as locusts, crickets, cattle flies, scarab beetles and other animals such as spiders, yellow eels, ants and frogs, and is the only heron that does not eat fish and feeds mainly on insects. Often accompanied by cattle activities, like to stand on the back of the cow or follow the cattle ploughing the field to peck at the cultivated insects and parasites on the back of the cow, hence the name "cow back heron". China is distributed throughout the south of the Yangtze River, and the summer activity area extends north to north China.
The bull-backed heron is a medium-sized wader, with a body length of 46 to 55 cm and a weight of 0.3 to 0.5 kg. Summer feathers are mostly white , with orange-yellow head and neck , long orange-yellow feathers scattered into hair at the base of the fore neck and center of the dorsal , the fore neck feathers up to the chest , the back feathers backwards up to the tail , and the tail and rest of the body feathers white. The winter feathers are all white and have no hair-like feathers. The mouth is orange-yellow, the iris is golden yellow, the bare skin around the mouth and eyes is yellow, and the feet are dark brown.
Oxback herons often move in small groups of 3 to 5 individually or in groups of dozens. Sexually active and docile, not very afraid of people, silent when active, like to stand on the treetops when resting, the neck is shrunk into an "S" shape; when flying, the head is shrunk to the back, the neck protrudes downwards like a throat sac, the body is hunchback-shaped, the flight altitude is low, and it usually flies in a straight line. The breeding period is from April to July, often in groups of nests, nests on trees or bamboo forests, nests are composed of dead branches, a little hay inside, the eggs are light blue, smooth and spotless, and the male and female parent birds take turns to incubate the eggs.
The bullback heron is partly a resident bird and partly migrates. Most of the breeding populations south of the Yangtze River in China are resident birds, and most of the people north of the Yangtze River are summer migratory birds. In the Wetlands of the North Sea in the middle of summer and August, the aquatic grass is fresh and soft, the duckweed is floating, the lotus shadow is swaying, there are wild ducks and water birds on the water from time to time, and the bullback herons in the green grass sometimes fly around, chase and play, sometimes comb the feathers, look at the shadows, and sometimes flapp their wings and fly high, circling the sky. Stop here, look at the water birds flying in the air, the wild ducks playing on the water, and listen to the insects in the wetland grass, how can you not revel in it?
Source: Tengchong Beihai Wetland Provincial Nature Reserve