From Opus

Photo by makus

Pulau Indah, Selangor state, Malaysia

Alternative name: Chestnut Bittern

Ixobrychus cinnamomeus

[edit] Identification

38cm. Male - cinnamon above and buff below, green-yellow legs, yellow bill. Female - brown back and crown. Juvenile - similar to female but heavily streaked brown underparts.

[edit] Distribution

Breeds in Sakhalin and the Russian Far East, Korea and throughout much of eastern and southern China, Indochina, Thailand and Malaysia and on Taiwan, the Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi. Alco occurs in Burma, west to north-west India and south through the Indian Subcontinent to Sri Lanka.

A summer visitor to breeding range present late April-September. Winters in southern China, Taiwan, Indochina, Thailand and Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

[edit] Vagrancy

Recorded as a vagrant in Burma but there is one extraordinary and apparently valid record in Europe. An immature female was caught at Piemonte in northern Italy in November 1912.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.

[edit] Habitat

Reedswamps and often dry grassland, prefers drier habitats than Little Bittern but also seen by ponds and rivers.

[edit] Behaviour

The diet includes frogs, fish, insects and amphibians.

They nest in on a platform nest of reeds lined with grasses and leaves; 4-6 dull white eggs are laid and both parents incubate for 23 days.

[edit] References

Birding in Taiwan; naturia

[edit] External Links