The yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) is a small bittern. It is of Old World origins, breeding in the northern Indian Subcontinent, east to the Russian Far East, Japan and Indonesia. It is mainly resident, but some northern birds migrate short distances. It has been recorded as a vagrant in Alaska and there is a single sighting in Great Britain, from Radipole Lake, Dorset on November 23, 1962 – however, the British Ornithologists' Union has always considered this occurrence to be of uncertain provenance and currently it is not accepted onto the official British List.
The yellow bittern was formally described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Systema Naturae. He placed it with the herons, cranes, storks and bitterns in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea sinensis.[1] Gmelin based his description on the "Chinese heron" that had been included by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham based his description on a collection of Chinese drawings.[2] The yellow bittern is now one of ten species placed in the genus Ixobrychus that was introduced in 1828 by the Swedish naturalist Gustaf Johan Billberg.[3] [4] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ixias, a reed-like plant and brukhomai, to bellow. The specific epithet sinensis is Modern Latin meaning "China".[5] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.[4]
The yellow bittern is a small species at in length, with a short neck and longish bill.[6] [7] It has yellow green legs, an ivory bill (darker on top), a short black tail and yellow irises.[8] [9] The male of the species has a dark cap, chestnut head and neck, with a uniformly dull yellow body above and buff below.[10] The female's cap, neck and breast are streaked, with a rufous hindneck and upper back and streaked dark red brown and buff under parts. The juveniles of the species resemble the female but is more boldly streaked, brown on its head and back, and mottled with buff above.[11]
Yellow bittern's are found in fresh water marshes and swamps. It nests in small constructed platforms of reeds or twigs in the vegetation of reed beds or in trees and shrubs adjacent to or above water.[12] They lay four to six pale blue-green eggs.[13]
Yellow bitterns feed on a variety of insects, fish, amphibians, crustaceans and molluscs.
The yellow bittern is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.[14] [15]