JAPAN bird, sorry no photos (1 Viewer)

[Mari E]

I'm based in Kansai, and I saw a heron/egret/bittern in a small concrete pool. It's no bigger than 10X10m big and I believe it's used for some industrial reasons. It's a place where grey herons and little and large egrets sometimes hang around.

The bird was definately smaller than a grey heron, possibly smaller than little egrets but since it was preening all the time I couldn't get a presice idea of the size. Since it was on my way to school I could only watch it for several seconds, but it was brown, overall streaky/spotty appearance, completely yellow legs. I couldn't spot any obvious marks but again, it was preening.

Since it's a man made pool in a suburban area I assume it must be something common. But I'm not familiar with Japanese birds yet so any help appreciated.

Mari

PS At first I thought it might be a schrenck's little bittern but I'm guessing they are too uncommon to consider.

 

[Richard Klim]

Mari, possibly a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax.

 

[HokkaidoStu]

Yup, sounds like a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron. Did it look like this?

 

[lostinjapan]

Agree with Stu and Richard. Immature Black-crowned Night Heron is most likely. They are not put off by such urban settings and contrary to their name are quite easy to see during the day in Japan.

Sean

 

[Mari E]

Thanks everyone, juv black crowned night heron seems like a perfect match