A skewer of egrets

or wedge, or congregation, or...

Last week, a line of trees running along the edge of a parking lot in Bhaktapur, filled with cattle egrets having a party. They’re not uncommon birds, but I don’t often see them this close up since I moved from the outskirts of the city, and when I do, it’s usually as a formation of white in the distance. Here were trees full of them, chattering and carrying on. At first I thought they were juveniles, and maybe some of them were, but later I found this in one of my Birds of Nepal books (Helm Field Guides, Bloombsbury) “Has orange-buff on head, neck and mantle in breeding plumage… Breeds colonially in large trees…”

Inexplicably, when I started searching I found over a dozen different collective nouns for egrets; congregation, wedge and skewer are just a few. Who chooses these collective nouns, anyway, and can I help? It sure seems like fun.

“You lookin’ at me?”

Why yes, I was! Happy Wednesday!