Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) - 7 January 2013 KM 78 Rama II Road, Samut Sakhon Province, Thailand Photos © 2013 Joseph Morlan



These small bitterns usually hide in dense reed-beds where they are most active at dawn and dusk. However, this individual managed to climb up a vine-laden Mesquite shrub and out into the sun where it posed for a photo. This is an adult. Immatures are more heavily streaked with black. Sexes are similar but females have less dark on the crown and more streaking on the neck. Based on these features, I judged this bird to be a female.

Herons and bitterns have eyes which face down or forward in the same direction providing binocular vision as evident in this photo. This arrangement may aid them in judging distance for hunting.

There is much individual variation but no subspecies are currently recognized.

Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA |hand-held (no adapter).
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