A rare glimpse of a Mangrove Heron

OK, I know that "Mangrove Heron" is the old name for this bird, but I find it hard to call this bird a "Striated Heron" - for this form shows only a thin white patch on its rufous chest - hardly my idea of "stripes". I prefer the old name of Mangrove Heron. (Butorides striatus) As usual, the "scientific name" is shown, to avoid complete confusion.At the risk of boring everybody, this is the problem with international rules of nomenclature for birds. Birds which have a wide distribution, as happens with many sea birds, and "waders", as well as some migrant Australian birds which travel into Asia, are meant to carry the name first ascribed to them. So names which were popularised in Australia, in the old-fashioned Bird Books (in this case "Mangrove Bittern") have been forced to give way to the international names. This bird was described by Linnaeus as Butorides striatus. That name was given to this bird by Linnaeus, in 1758, so clearly it was not from an Australian specimen (prior to European settlement of Australia). This bird is recorded from Africa, North and South America, Asia and the Pacific, as well as Australia, down to Mallacoota in far-eastern Victoria. It is uncommon south from Sydney. So this is an interesting record for Bermagui, NSW (Baragoot Lake) on Friday 31 July 2009, at 2:30pm.

I will report this "sighting" to the Canberra Ornithologists Group, as someone there will be able to tell me how to officially record this sighting (other than on my Blog and David's Blog).*** See update, below.

I should acknowledge that when I first saw this bird I thought it was a "Reef Heron", but when I developed the images, several days later, I realised how much rufous this bird has, thus ruling out that original ID. The "Reef Heron" is slaty grey (or white). It is now officially classed as an Egret. (Pacific, or Eastern, Reef-Egret).

My clearest photo of the Striated (or Mangrove) Heron.
It shows the hunched posture adopted by this bird.
It also shows the light green patch of skin in front of the eye,
which is typical of this species.
Click to enlarge the image.

In further "old-fashioned" bird language, this pose is typical of many "Bitterns". Wikipedia explains what I mean: "Bitterns are a classification of wading birds in the heron family Ardeidae. Species named bitterns tend to be the shorter-necked, often more secretive members of this family." Many Bitterns adopt this hunch-backed pose, when "skulking around" looking for food. But this bird was out in the open. But the hunch-back appearance is normal for this species.

My Blogging colleague David Young has reported on this sighting, with a very nice photo. So, this report serves as confirmation of David's record. David was standing closer than I was, and his image is nice and clear, and shows the rufous colour very well.

It seems that juvenile birds are prominently striped. Also, as with many birds which have a wide range, there are local variations in colour. There are apparently 22 sub-species recorded, of which two are recorded in Australia. There is a full page of Australian images of this species showing the variability of this species.

This bird appears to fall into the group described as a "rufous morph" (colour variant). This image shows the rufous colour better than my others.Here is a photo of this bird in flight, showing its habit of flying with the neck bent (tucked in).By contrast, here is a White-fronted Heron in flight (calling as it flies). This image was taken at the same coastal inlet, a mere minute or two before the Mangrove Heron flew in, and then flew out again.
This is my "art photo" for the day. I love the shadow on the sand as the bird flies away.If you click to enlarge the image, you can clearly see the shadow of the beak, and even of the feet and the separate shadow of the hind toes. How sweet is that?

The bird's shadow looks like a delta-wing plane - revealing the inherent efficiency of its flight, created by adopting what looks to us as a slightly awkward pose. Nothing off the sort - it is aerodynamically efficient!

*** Update:
This record has now been reported on Birds Australia's "Birdline NSW"
See this link.
My report is registered on Friday 31 July - the date of the sighting.
Anyone can join. The posts are "moderated" and it might take 24 hours to get your name "registered" and your record published. They will send you a log-in once you have joined, but my report was accepted on the basis of what I sent in, just by applying for registration. In other words, prior registration is not required.
So, as I said, anyone can report an unusual sighting.
Obviously, a clearly recognisable image and a decent locational report, etc helps to maintain the standards which one would expect of Birds Australia.

White-faced Heron - up close and personal

Here is a very common bird, but seen a bit closer than normal. It is the White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae). It is a common bird across the eastern states (and the rest of the country too, it seems, except the dry centre). By "common" I do not mean "numerous", but certainly it is seldom a surprise to see one of these birds. It may be found around ovals and parks, fish ponds in private gardens (which you thought had goldfish in them), urban lakes like this, and is also often seen stalking insects such as crickets and grasshoppers in paddocks. It builds a large stick nest, high in a large tree, often a great distance away from water.

These shots were taken ages ago, on a trip to Melbourne (September 2006). It was at one of a series of lakes/swamps/reserves on the Dandenong Creek. This was at "Bushy Park" Reserve. I was in a "hide", which explains why the bird was not too scared of me. Clearly it knew I was inside the shelter of the hide, but my presence did not disturb the bird at all. It just kept on feeding , right outside the hide.

What happened was that the bird was working the water's edge, and I stayed put (in the hide), and let the bird walk closer and closer to me.
As you can see, the bird stared at me - but, once it was reassured, it kept on coming.Note the long yellow-green legs, and the typical pose of the hunting Heron. Compare this photo with the last one, where the legs are in deep water. Back in the water, the Heron is now keeping a steady watch for small fish.
This next photo is the one which got away. Not the fish - I am sure it is safely gulped down, but the photo. Occasionally one sees a photo like this, with a fish visible in mid air, about to be swallowed. It is just a sudden snap of movement. I missed that image, by about 1/100th of a second, I figure.

These birds catch their prey, hold the beak fixed (for just a moment) and then in one very swift move, pull the neck and head backwards, then open the beak, thus swallowing the fish which has been literally thrown down the bird's neck. See how closely the neck has been drawn back over the birds shoulders, compared to the posture in the photo above.
Note how deep this water is. If you check back to the photo of the bird walking towards the camera, all the yellow-green part of the bird's leg which is visible in that photo, is now covered in water.

The Nature of birds in grazing lands

This winter has seen a lot of gentle rain falling over the Robertson area. One group of birds which have benefitted are the birds which hang out in the grazing lands around the district.

Ibises (mostly the Straw-necked Ibis) have been seen regularly, this year, on the dairy farming properties along the Belmore Falls Road, just down the valley from my house. They also have been seen on the Hindmarsh Dairy, past the Robertson Show Grounds, and in East Kangaloon, (also on dairy farming properties).

This closer shot was taken in Canberra, several months ago.

These birds have long curved beaks and they spend hours at a time searching for grubs (in particular) in grassed paddocks, especially where cattle are to be found.

They force their long beaks into the soft ground, in search of these grubs. Their hearing is apparently very sensitive allowing them to track the grubs.

Other species are seen here too. I have seen just a few White Ibis on these paddocks. There is a White Ibis in this flock, and a White-faced Heron, (the grey bird standing upright).

But last week there were 2 Cattle Egrets there. This is the first time I have seen Cattle Egrets in the Robertson area. I have seen them routinely in the much warmer Kangaroo Valley, just 10 Km away (directly), but an area with a "coastal climate", not a "mountain climate" as in Robertson. Unlike the Ibises, these particular Egrets hang out very closely with cattle, which disturb insects as they graze, and the Egrets pounce on the insects.

Last week I also saw a Pacific Heron (White-necked Heron) in the same paddock as the Straw-necked Ibis flock. I was interested to note that this bird is considerable taller than those Ibises.

I know it has a more upright stance than the Ibis, but it has a very large wing-span. It is close to twice the size of the White-faced Heron - (the regular heron of the area). This bird is quite distinctive in flight, flapping very slowly, and with very dark wings, and a white chest and neck. But like most herons, it flies with its neck folded back into its body. Ibises fly with necks fully extended (plus their long beaks), so their flight profile is very different from this bird.