The Eastern Cattle Egret is mostly white, but its head, neck, and breast turn orange during breeding. It uses open grassland, fields, and wetlands and moves seasonally.
Nonbreeding adults are white with a short, thick neck. Breeding adults develop deep orange-buff feathers on the head, neck, breast, and back, a red bill with a yellow tip, purple lores, and red legs.
It uses open habitats such as grasslands, fields, wetlands, and mudflats. It moves seasonally between breeding and wintering areas in Asia.
It catches insects and other prey flushed by cattle and water buffalo. In Hong Kong, small groups also forage in vegetated wetlands and around fishponds.
In Japan it occurs mainly as a summer visitor from Honshu southward and breeds in mixed heron colonies. It builds twig nests in trees or bamboo; both sexes incubate and rear chicks. Clutches contain two to seven eggs, often four, with incubation lasting about 24 days.
Juveniles resemble nonbreeding adults.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.