Editing Cattle egret (section)

==Taxonomy==
Before the description of the ''Bubulcus'' by [[Charles Lucien Bonaparte]] in 1855,<ref name=Bonaparte/> the [[western cattle egret]] had already been described in 1758 by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his ''[[Systema Naturae]]'' as ''Ardea ibis'',<ref name=Linnaeus1758/> and the eastern cattle egret had been described in 1783 by [[Pieter Boddaert]] as ''Cancroma coromanda''. Their [[genus|generic]] name ''Bubulcus'' is [[Latin]] for herdsman, referring, like the English name, to their association with cattle.<ref name=Valpy/> ''Ibis'' is a Latin and [[Greek language|Greek]] word which originally referred to another white wading bird, the [[sacred ibis]],<ref name=Webster/> but was applied to the western cattle egret in error.<ref name=job>{{cite book | last= Jobling | first= James A | year= 2010| title= The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url= https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location = London | isbn = 978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n201 201]}}</ref> The epithet ''coromanda'' refers to the [[Coromandel Coast]] of India.<ref name=job/>

The eastern and western cattle egrets were split by McAllan and Bruce,<ref name=McAllan1988/> but were regarded as [[conspecific]] by almost all other recent authors until the publication of the influential ''[[Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide|Birds of South Asia]]''.<ref name=Rasmussen/> The eastern cattle egret breeds in South Asia, Eastern Asia, and Australasia, and the western species occupies the rest of the cattle egret's range, including Western Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas.<ref name=Krebs/> According to the IOC birdlist, they are both monotypic species. While some authorities recognise a third [[Seychelles]] subspecies, the [[Seychelles cattle egret]] (''A. i. seychellarum''), which was first described by [[Finn Salomonsen]] in 1934.<ref name=Drury/>

Despite superficial similarities in appearance, the cattle egret is more closely related to the other members of the genus ''[[Ardea (genus)|Ardea]]'', which comprises the great or typical herons and the [[great egret]] (''A. alba''), than to the majority of species termed egrets in the genus ''[[Egretta]]''.<ref name=Sheldon/> Rare cases of [[hybridisation in birds|hybridization]] with [[little blue heron]]s (''Egretta caerulea''), [[little egret]]s (''E. garzetta''), and [[snowy egret]]s (''E. thula'') have been recorded.<ref name=McCarthy2006/>

An older English name for the cattle egret is buff-backed heron.<ref name=buffbacked>{{cite web |url=https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=AB1CB2161CDC177A |title=Western Cattle Egret |publisher=Avibase |access-date=2020-05-03}}</ref>