range
The cattle_egret, a species widely distributed in Africa, Eurasia, and Australia, was not found in the Americas 200 years ago. Some of these strong–flying birds managed to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and colonize northeastern South America in the late 1800s. They gradually spread northward into North America, reaching Florida in the 1950s. Today they breed as far west as the Pacific Coast and as far north as southern Canada. 1