- Dupetor flavicollis
Ixobrychus flavicollis
Identification
Distribution
Tropical Asia toAustralia. Breeds from south-east Pakistan, throughout India to Sri Lanka and in western Burma, southern China and Hainan, the Philippines, southern Thailand and Indochina, southern Malaya, Sumatra, Java and Timor. Also occurs in southern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands and in coastal western, northern and eastern Australia.
Chinese birds are migratory and winter in Malaysia and Indonesia but elsewhere this species appears to undergo dispersal governed by rains.
Taxonomy
Some authorities place this species in the genus Ixobrychus.
Dupetor flavicollis has three subspecies:
- D. f. flavicollis;
- D. f. australis; and
- D. f. woodfordi.
Habitat
Densely vegetated margins of lakes and ponds, forest swamps and riverbanks, often nocturnal.