The Horse Egret

There are two white horses together with their attendants at Lago di Alviano.

This is a Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, riding a white horse. No, I don’t mean that it’s high on cocaine. I mean it’s literally riding a white horse.

It’s a Horse Egret, then, isn’t it?

I see one of the Horse Egrets catch and swallow a large frog. It stops being a sentinel angel for a moment and dismounts from its steed, flaps into the undergrowth and takes the frog whole. It must be great to have the animal equivalent of a grouse beater on hand.