Alternative names: Malay Night Heron
- Gorsachius melanolophus
Identification
45-49 cm (17¾-19¼ in)
- Dark reddish-brown and black heron
- Black cap and crest
- White-tipped primaries
- Chestnut-barred upperparts
- Olive feet and bill
Distribution
Patchy range in India and South-East Asia.
Breeds in two separate areas of India, in the Western Ghats from Belgaum southwards in south-west India and in the north-east in Assam and Manipur. Also breeds in scattered areas of Burma, Thailand, Indochina, China (including Hong Kong and Hainan) and further south in Malaya, the Nicobar Islands, eastern Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines. Some birds are resident on the southern Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and in Taiwan.
South-west Indian birds winter in the highlands of Sri Lanka and arrive October-November and those from north-east India move south-west into Burma and Thailand in August-October.
It is related to, but distinct from, the Japanese Night Heron.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Two subspecies are recognized[1].
- G. m. melanolophus - patchily distributed from India (Western Ghats, Assam) east to southern China, Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands, the Philippines, and southeast Asia south to the northern Thai-Malay Peninsula; winters to Sri Lanka, the southern Thai-Malay Peninsula, and the Greater Sunda Islands
- G. m. minor - Nicobar Islands
Habitat
Streams in dense hill forest, lowland swamps.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists of beetles and other insects, earthworms, frogs, lizards, molluscs, snakes and possibly small fish.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved December 2015)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Malayan Night Heron. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Malayan_Night_Heron
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
