- Botaurus minutus
Ixobrychus minutus
Identification
27-38 cm (10½-15 in) in length, 40-58 cm wingspan and 60-150 g weight.
Buff underparts, black back and crown, wings are black with a large white patch on each wing.
The female has a browner back and a buff-brown wing patch.
Distribution
Africa, central and southern Europe, western and southern Asia, and Australasia.
Europe: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Faroe Islands, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Madeira, Spain, Ibiza, Mallorca, Canary Islands, Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Crete, Corfu, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine
Northern Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, eSwatini
African Islands: Cape Verde, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Sao Tome, Principe, Madagascar
Middle East: Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Asia: Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Eastern and Western Himalayas
The Caribbean: vagrant to Barbados[3].
Taxonomy
Black-backed Bittern was split from this species.
Subspecies
There are 3 subspecies[1]:
- I. m. minutus:
- I. m. payesii:
- Africa south of the Sahara
- I. m. podiceps:
Habitat
Reedbeds
Behaviour
Breeding
They nest on platforms of reeds in shrubs, and 4-8 eggs are laid.
Diet
Diet includes insects, fish and amphibians.
Vocalisation
References
- Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Avibase
- 51st supplement to the AOU checklist of North American birds
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Little Bittern. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 March 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Little_Bittern.
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
