Alternative name: South American Bittern
- Botaurus pinnatus
Identification
63.5 and 76 cm (25-30 in) with a weight of roughly 800g (1.76 pounds). Females tend to be smaller than males.
Buffy white throat, foreneck white broadly streaked with pale brown, rest of the neck is buff with thin black barring. White breast and belly with broad pale brown streaks, buff back, heavily streaked and barred with black. Yellow bill. The bare facial skin is bright yellow, with a brown line running across the lores. The legs are greenish-yellow, and the iris is yellow.
Similar Species
The smaller American Bittern overlaps in south east Mexico in winter; it lacks the barring on the neck instead showing large spots forming streaks, and a strong black stripe from the base of the bill down the neck.
Distribution
A population in the Caribbean slope of Mexico is separate from a second population from southern Nicaragua in Central America to South America where found mostly east of the Andes to north-central Argentina.
Taxonomy
German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler, who first described the South American Bittern in 1829, placed it in the genus Ardea. It is sometimes included in a superspecies with American Bittern, and these two species are sometimes further included in a superspecies with Eurasian Bittern. There are currently two recognized subspecies, which are separated by a gap in Central America.
Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized[1]:
- B.p. caribaeus in Mexico
- B.p. pinnatus in rest of range
Habitat
Swamps, paddyfields and cane plantations.
Behaviour
Largely nocturnal.
Diet
Their diet consists mostly of fish, frogs, snakes and insects.
Breeding
They build a platform or shallow cup nest of rush stems or other plant material, among thick vegetation not far above the water surface. Their clutch constains 2-3 olive-brown eggs which are incubated by the female.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Howell & Webb, 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198540124
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Pinnated Bittern. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 20 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Pinnated_Bittern
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
