From Opus

Photo by Neil Fifer
Near Sydney, Australia

Dupetor flavicollis

Ixobrychus flavicollis

[edit] Identification

Adult

• 58cm.
• Black above
• Yellow neck sides
• Whitish undersides are heavily streaked with brown
• Longish neck
• Long yellow bil
  

Juvenile dark brown rather than black, otherwise similar to the adult

[edit] Distribution

Tropical Asia to Australia. 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.

[edit] Taxonomy

Some authorities place this species in the genus Ixobrychus.

Dupetor flavicollis has three subspecies:

• D. f. flavicollis:

• India and South-eastern Asia to Indonesia and Philippines

• D. f. australis:

• Moluccas, New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago to west, north and eastern Australia

• D. f. woodfordi:

• Solomon Islands

[edit] Habitat

Densely vegetated margins of lakes and ponds, forest swamps and riverbanks.

[edit] Behaviour

Often nocturnal.

[edit] Breeding

Nests are placed on a branch overhanging water and are a bed of sticks and reeds on a base of larger sticks. Both adults incubate the 3 to 5 eggs and rear the young.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes frogs, reptiles, fish and invertebrates, snails, dragonflies, shrimps and crayfish.

[edit] Vocalisation

A booming call.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links

• View more images of this species on the ABID