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Authors Reported 5,441 Wet-Season Western Cattle Egret Observations at Chelekleka Wetland

Wild western cattle egret perched on a branch near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Research · Ecology

A field study at Chelekleka Wetland in Ethiopia reported substantially more western cattle egret (Ardea ibis) observations during the wet season than during the dry season. The study, published online on 15 February 2026, combined seasonal counts with observations of daily activity, foraging and habitat use in the Ethiopian Rift Valley.

In scan sampling, observers record the behaviour of many visible birds at set moments, whereas focal observations follow selected individuals more continuously for a defined period.

Map of Chelekleka Wetland study area in Ethiopia
Chelekleka Wetland and the surrounding study landscape near Bishoftu in Ethiopia. Figure 1 from Tigab & Enyew (2026), International Journal of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, CC BY 4.0.

Authors reported 5,441 wet-season observations

Fieldwork covered the wet season from June to August 2023 and the dry season from January to February 2024. Researchers divided the study area into habitat blocks and used direct counts, scan sampling and focal observations. The methods describe 32 survey days in total, while the result for the number of birds is presented in the paper as three-day count data. The authors report 5,441 egret observations for the wet season and 3,335 for the dry season. However, the wet-season block counts shown in their table do not add consistently to the published total, so 5,441 should be treated as the authors’ reported figure rather than an independently verifiable sum or a regional population estimate.

Feeding accounted for 87–91% of recorded activity

Feeding dominated the birds’ daily activity in both seasons. It accounted for 86.9% of recorded activity during the wet season and 91.2% during the dry season. Feeding was most prominent in the early morning, particularly between 08:00 and 10:00, while flying, preening and resting became more prominent around midday.

The egrets mainly foraged in open grasslands, pastures and farmland and were frequently observed following grazing livestock. As livestock move through vegetation, they can disturb insects and make them more accessible to the birds. The researchers also recorded potential invertebrate food resources in the habitat, including grasshoppers, beetles, flies and spiders.

Chelekleka functions both as a wetland and as part of a wider landscape of grazing and agricultural areas. The authors link the seasonal differences in egret numbers and activity to changing water conditions and resource availability. They emphasise the importance of maintaining connections between open feeding areas and nearby wetland roosting habitat.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend maintaining the wetland’s hydrological balance by protecting inflow channels, reducing sedimentation and preventing excessive water extraction, while also limiting habitat degradation from agricultural expansion, pollution and urban encroachment.

Sources and image credit

  1. Tigab, T., & Enyew, M. (2026). Population size and ecological behaviour of cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) in Chelekleka Wetland, Ethiopia. International Journal of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, 6(1), 47–66. https://doi.org/10.53378/ijstem.353325Primary open-access article published online 15 February 2026 under CC BY 4.0. The authors report 5,441 wet-season observations and 3,335 dry-season observations. The wet-season block counts in Table 2 do not sum consistently to the published total, so 5,441 is treated as the authors’ reported figure rather than a verified three-day sum or regional population estimate.

Image: Bernard Gagnon — wild western cattle egret near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, photographed 19 November 2017; Wikimedia Commons Quality Image; representative African image, not a bird from the Ethiopian study · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

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