This species sometimes (e.g. IOC) goes under the English name, Nankeen Night Heron. Interestingly, Howard & Moore called it
Nankeen Night-Heron through their 2nd edition, but changed to Rufous Night-Heron in the 3rd & 4th editions. Meanwhile IOC called it Rufous through their 2.2 edition but switched to Nankeen in version 2.3. True to their compound-noun aversion policy, IOC removed the hyphen. HBW retained the hyphen but spells "heron" in lower case. "Nankeen" is an archaic term for a pale yellow cotton fabric, made in Nanjing, China, but not really descriptive of this heron's adult plumage. Six subspecies are currently recognized (one extinct), with birds from Australia now assigned to N. c. australasiae; formerly N. c. hilli. However australasiae apparently has priority. Adults of this race have chestnut-brown upperparts. This species is a close relative of the widespread Black-crowned Night-Heron (N. nycticorax). Additional photo showing a juvenile with large white dorsal spots.
Panasonic DMC-LZ5