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- Ixobrychus sturmii
Identification
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa. Breeds from Senegal east to Ethiopia and south, mainly through the eastern half of Africa, to the Cape. Absent from the arid areas of the south-west. Generally rare and seldom seen. A partial migrant occurring in the northern part of the range during the May-September wet season. An extremely rare vagrant to the Western Palearctic and recorded only in the Canary Islands. There are four acceptable records, although the first two of these, both from Tenerife, one in the late 19th Century and the other in the 1970s, have yet to be ratified by the relevant recording bodies. The first accepted record was a bird photographed on Gran Canaria in January 2000. The most recent was a bird photographed at Erjos on Tenerife in August 2002 and present until April 2003. In addition there have been several unsubstantiated reports from Lanzarote and Allegranza and a 19th Century record of two birds shot in France. This record is assumed to have involved escaped birds.
Taxonomy
Ixobrychus sturmii
Habitat
Densely vegetated margins of lakes and ponds, swamps and riverbanks, often nocturnal
