- Ixobrychus flavicollis
Identification
58cm. Black above,yellow neck sides, whitish below heavily streaked with brown, longish neck and long yellow bill. The juvenile is like the adult, but dark brown rather than black.
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.
Ixobrychus flavicollis has three subspecies:
- I. f. flavicollis;
- I. f. australis; and
- I. f. woodfordi.
Habitat
Densely vegetated margins of lakes and ponds, forest swamps and riverbanks.
Behaviour
Often nocturnal.
Nests are placed on a branch overhanging water and are a bed of sticks and reeds on a base of larger sticks. 3-5 eggs are laid and both parents incubate and rear the young.
The diet includes frogs, reptiles, fish and invertebrates, snails, dragonflies, shrimps and crayfish.
Vocalisation
A booming call.
