From Opus

Revision as of 19:16, 10 January 2011

Photo by Steve Garvie
Location: S'Albufera de Mallorca

Ixobrychus minutus

Identification

27-36 cm in length, 40-58 cm wingspan and 60-150 g weight.
Buff underparts, black back and crown, wings are black with a large white patch on each wing.
The female has a browner back and a buff-brown wing patch.

Distribution

Female
Photo by john-henry
Lesvos, Greece, May 2004

Africa, central and southern Europe, western and southern Asia, and Australasia.
Europe: Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Faroe Islands, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Madeira, Spain, Ibiza, Mallorca, Canary Islands, Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, Crete, Corfu, Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine
Northern Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola

Photo by Bonnán
Ayia Reservoir, Crete, October 2008

Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Swaziland
African Islands: Cape Verde, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Sao Tome, Principe, Madagascar
Middle East: Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Asia: Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Eastern and Western Himalayas
The Caribbean: vagrant to Barbados^[3].

Taxonomy

There are three subspecies

Subspecies^[1]

• I. m. minutus:

• Central and southern Europe to Siberia; North Africa

• I. m. payesii:

• Africa south of the Sahara

• I. m. podiceps:

• Madagascar

Black-backed Bittern was split from this species.

Habitat

Reedbeds

Behaviour

Breeding

It nests on platforms of reeds in shrubs, and 4-8 eggs are laid.

Diet

Diet includes insects, fish and amphibians.

Vocalisation

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. Avibase
3. 51st supplement to the AOU checklist of North American birds

• List of references.

External Links