Toggle navigation
Emperor Ken's World
Store
Galleries
Home
Oil
Pastel, Pencil, Ink
Digital
Animation
Photography
Commercial
Music
Songbird ReMix
Home
Store & Downloads
Bird Encyclopedia
Newsletters
Nature's Wonders
Tutorials
Hall of Fame
Elsa's Cockatoo Corner
Nature's Wonders
Home
Products
Quail Hollow
Home
The Houses
The Garden
Flora and Fauna
Bird List
Bird Photos
Fauna Photos
Flora Photos
Fun Stuff
Home
TI-99/4a
WOT Condors Clan
KBGB Enterprises
Diversions
Downloads
About
About Ken
Press
Awards
Art Biography
Eco-Talk Blog
Contact
Search
×
Search Emperor Ken's World
View source
From SongbirdReMixWiki
for
Little Bittern
Jump to:
navigation
,
search
[[Image:Littlebittern.jpg]] '''Common Name:''' Little Bittern '''Scientific Name:''' Lxobrychus minutus '''Size:''' 10 ½ - 14 inches (27-36 cm) '''Habitat:''' Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia; the species is most common in freshwater marshes with beds of bulrushes, reeds or other dense aquatic vegetation, preferably also with deciduous bushes and trees such as willow or alder. It may also occupy the margins of lakes, pools and reservoirs, wooded and marshy banks of streams and rivers, desert oases, peat bogs, wooded swamps, wet grasslands, rice-fields, rank vegetation around sewage ponds, and in places mangroves, the margins of saline lagoons and salt marshes. '''Status:''' Least Concern. Global Population: 76,000-610,000. The species is threatened by habitat degradation and loss through direct destruction, pollution and hydrological changes (e.g. in rivers). The species also suffers mortality as a result of drought and desertification on African staging and wintering grounds (degrades wetland habitats needed by the species). In Victoria (Australia) the Little Bittern is listed as “Endangered”. Protected by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). '''Diet:''' Varies with region and season but it is essentially insectivorous and takes aquatic adult and larval insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars and beetles. Other food items include spiders, mollusks, crustaceans (e.g. shrimp and crayfish), fish, frogs, tadpoles, small reptiles and small birds. '''Nesting:''' The nest is constructed from reeds and twigs and is normally placed near open pools in thick emergent vegetation (such as beds of bulrushes or reeds close to the surface of the water or up to 60 cm above it. Alternatively nests may be placed in low bushes or trees (e.g. alder or willow) up to 2 m above water. Preferred nesting sites are usually 5-15 m out from the shore in water 20-30 cm deep. The species usually nests singly but may nest in loose colonies in favorable habitats with neighboring nests as close as 5 m apart (solitary nests are usually 30-100 m apart). Nests are often reused in consecutive years '''Cool Facts:''' There are four subspecies: * ''Ixobrychus minutus minutus'' (Linnaeus, 1766). Europe, Asia, northern Africa; winters in sub-saharan Africa and southern Asia. * ''Ixobrychus minutus payesii'' (Hartlaub, 1858). Sub-saharan Africa, resident. * ''Ixobrychus minutus podiceps'' (Bonaparte, 1855). Madagascar, resident. * ''Ixobrychus minutus dubius'' (Matthews, 1912). Australia, New Guinea, resident. '''Found in Shorebirds Volume II: Herons and Bitterns'''
Return to
Little Bittern
.
Views
Page
Discussion
View source
History
Personal tools
Log in
Navigation
Main Page
Songbird ReMix website
FAQ
Songbird ReMix Products
Environment & Birds
Random page
Help
Songbird ReMix Bird Library
Within the Continental US
Northern Canada & the Arctic
Central America & Carribean
South America
Africa
Europe
Asia & Indonesia
Oceania: Australia & New Zealand
Oceania: Hawaii & Polynesia
Antactica & Sub-Antartica
Imaginary & Mythical
Search
Toolbox
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages