Striated Heron
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| Striated Heron | ||||||||||||||
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 Juvenile, subspecies unknown
al-Qurm park (Oman) |
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| Butorides striata (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Butorides striatus |
The Striated Heron, Butorides striata, also known as Mangrove Heron or Little Heron, is a small heron. This bird is often considered to be conspecific with the closely related North American species, the Green Heron. It is noted for some interesting behavioral traits.
Adults have a blue-grey back and wings, white underparts, a black cap and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below.
Their breeding habitat is small wetlands in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia, and in South America. They are mostly non-migratory.
These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey, but are easier to see than many small heron species. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. They sometimes use bait, dropping a feather or leaf carefully on the water surface and picking fish that come to investigate[1].
They nest in a platform of sticks measuring between 20-40 cm long and 0.5-5 mm thick. The entire nest measures some 40-50 cm wide and 8-10 cm high outside, with an inner depression 20 cm wide and 4-5 cm deep. It is usually built in not too high off the ground in shrubs or trees but sometimes in sheltered locations on the ground, and often near water. The clutch is 2-5 eggs, which are pale blue and measure around 36 by 28 mm.[2]
An adult bird was observed in a peculiar and mysterious behavior: while on the nest, it would grab a stick in its bill and make a rapid back-and-forth motion with the head, like a sewing machine's needle. The significance of this behavior is completely unknown: While such movements occur in many other nesting birds where they seem to compact the nest, move the eggs, or dislodge parasites, neither seems to have been the case in this particular Striated Heron.[2]
Young birds will give a display when they feel threatened, by stretching out their necks and pointing the bill skywards. In how far this would deter predators is not known.[2]
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2005). Butorides striata. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Boswall, J. (1983): Tool-using and related behavior in birds: more notes. Avicultural Magazine 89: 94-108.
- Greeney, Harold F. & Merino M., Paúl A. (2006): Notes on breeding birds from the Cuyabeno Faunistic Reserve in northeastern Ecuador. Boletín de la Sociedad Antioqueña de Ornitología 16(2): 46-57. PDF fulltext
- Norris, D. (1975): Green Heron (Butorides virescens) uses feather lure for fishing. American Birds 29: 652-654.
- Robinson, S.K. (1994): Use of bait and lures by Green-backed Herons in Amazonian Peru. Wilson Bulletin 106(3): 569-571
- Walsh, J.F.; Grunewald, J. & Grunewald, B. (1985): Green-backed Herons (Butorides striatus) possibly using a lure and using apparent bait. J. Ornithol. 126: 439-442.
[edit] Gallery
 in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. |
