Cattle Egrets are medium-sized white herons that are commonly seen feeding alongside livestock in fields and pastures. As chicks, baby Cattle Egrets have different dietary needs than the adults in order to support their rapid growth and development.
What do baby Cattle Egrets eat when they first hatch?
For the first few days after hatching, baby Cattle Egrets are completely dependent on their parents for food. The parents regurgitate pre-digested food directly into the chicks’ mouths. This partially digested food is called “chick paste” and consists of whatever prey items the parents have been eating such as insects, small fish, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals.
Chick paste provides the newly hatched chicks with easily digestible nutrition and hydration until they develop the ability to swallow whole foods on their own. The rich chick paste stimulates rapid growth of the chicks while requiring minimal effort on their part for feeding. Parents may continue providing some chick paste supplemented with whole foods for the first week or two after hatching.
When do they start eating on their own?
Within a few days of hatching, Cattle Egret chicks will start pecking instinctively at items near the nest and begin swallowing small whole foods their parents bring back. At first, the chicks have limited neck strength and coordination to swallow on their own. But they quickly gain mobility and swallowing skills enabling them to handle whole foods.
From 1-2 weeks of age, the chicks eat independently while still relying heavily on food provided by the parents. Their diet consists of small prey items easy for a chick to swallow such as insects, tiny fish, tadpoles, small frogs, and rodents. The chicks beg and jostle competitively for the most nutritious foods brought by the parents.
What do the parents feed the chicks?
Parent Cattle Egrets forage for food to feed their chicks within roughly a 12 mile radius of the nesting colony. They seek out nutrient-dense foods easy for the chicks to swallow. Preferred foods include:
- Insects: grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, grubs, caterpillars
- Earthworms
- Small fish
- Frogs and tadpoles
- Rodents: mice, voles, shrews
- Reptiles: lizards, small snakes
The parents return to the nest with their stomachs full of chick-sized bites to regurgitate. As the chicks near fledging age, the parents bring back larger food items for the chicks to practice handling and swallowing.
How do the feeding habits change as the chicks grow?
The feeding behavior changes dramatically as the chicks go through different growth phases:
Week 1
Parents provide premasticated “chick paste” directly into the chicks’ mouths along with a few whole but small food items.
Weeks 2-3
Chicks are fed by the parents but eat independently. They eat small whole foods that are easy to swallow. Parents regurgitate and tip larger prey items into the nest for chicks to tear apart.
Weeks 4-6
Chicks have enough neck strength to swallow larger food items. Parents bring intact fish, frogs, lizards, rodents, and insects for the chicks to practice handling and feeding on their own.
Week 7
Chicks are proficient at self-feeding. Parents continue to provide food but begin tapering off. Chicks wander from the nest and start stabbing their own prey but still return to be fed.
When do the chicks start hunting on their own?
By 7-8 weeks of age, Cattle Egret chicks are ready to hunt on their own and will start to wander further from the nest. However, the parents may continue to supplement their diet for several more weeks as the fledglings perfect their hunting skills.
Initially, the young juveniles are not particularly skillful at catching their own food. But with practice and instruction from the parents, they gradually become more proficient hunters.
Even after completely leaving the nest, the juveniles often return to their colony for several weeks begging the adults to keep feeding them as they transition to independence.
What is the hunting style of juvenile Cattle Egrets?
Once independent, juvenile Cattle Egrets exhibit a distinctive hunting style characterized by:
- Running gleefully through wet grass snatching up stirred up prey
- Rapidly stabbing the ground as they chase after insects and other small prey
- Getting prey stomped up by large mammals such as cattle or buffalo then snatching the injured creatures
- Snatching up prey items disrupted by farming equipment during harvesting
- Hanging around fishermen and snapping up small fish and scraps of bait
The bumbling hunting attempts of the juveniles is very different than the poised patience exhibited by mature adults. But it allows the young birds to chase down weak and vulnerable prey until they develop more refined skills.
What is the significance of the change in diet for fledgling egrets?
The change from being fed by the parents to independent hunting enables the Cattle Egret chicks to start developing key life skills such as:
- Flight strength and coordination to chase prey
- Ability to identify suitable prey animals
- Stalking technique to get within striking distance
- Precision striking with their beak to impale prey
- Handling skills to subdue large prey like frogs or rodents
As the young birds master these abilities over the first few months after fledging, they become effective hunters ready to thrive on their own.
Summary of baby Cattle Egret diet
Here is a quick overview of the changing diet of Cattle Egrets from hatching to independence:
Age | Food source | Description of diet |
---|---|---|
Day 1 after hatching | Parent-provided “chick paste” | Regurgitated pre-digested insect/vertebrate prey from parents’ stomachs |
Days 2-7 | Mixture from parents | Chick paste supplemented with small whole insects, fish, tadpoles, reptiles |
Weeks 2-3 | Parents | Insects, worms, small vertebrates delivered whole by parents |
Weeks 4-6 | Parents | Larger intact prey items provided for chick self-feeding practice |
Week 7 | Mixture of self-caught and parental feeding | Chicks start stabbing own prey but parents still supplement |
Week 8+ | Self-caught prey | Fledglings hunt independently but still beg from parents |
The diet of nestling Cattle Egrets changes dramatically within a few weeks of hatching from total dependence on parental care to skillful independent hunting. The variety of prey offered by the attentive parents provides the essential nutrition to enable rapid chick growth and development.
Conclusion
The diet of baby Cattle Egrets shifts significantly within their first few months of life. From chick paste regurgitated by the parents, to whole but tiny prey items the parents deliver, to finally hunting large prey independently, the nutritional needs of the chicks are met each step of the way. The varied diet delivered by the diligent egret parents nourishes the chicks, enabling them to swiftly transform from helpless hatchlings into skillful juvenile hunters ready to thrive on their own.