Chinese Pond Heron

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Chinese Pond Heron
Nonbreeding adult
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ardeidae Genus: Ardeola Species: A. bacchus
Binomial name
Ardeola bacchus (Bonaparte, 1855)

Adult in breeding plumage

The Chinese Pond Heron, Ardeola bacchus, is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, found in shallow fresh and salt-water wetlands and ponds in China and East Asia. A stray bird stopping over on Saint Paul Island, Alaska August 4-9, 1997, was the first recorded occurrence of this species in the USA (AOU 2000).

The Chinese Pond Heron is typically 47cm long with white wings, a yellow bill with a black tip, yellow eyes and legs. Its overall colour is red, blue and white during breeding season, and greyish-brown and flecked with white at other times. The Chinese Pond Heron lays a clutch of 3-6 blue-green eggs, often in mixed nests with other herons. Its diet comprises or insects, fish, and crustaceans.

[edit] References

• American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) (2000): Forty-second supplement to the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American Birds. Auk 117(3): 847–858. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117[0847:FSSTTA]2.0.CO;2

• BirdLife International (2004). Ardeola bacchus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

• Robson, Craig (2000): A Field Guide to the Birds of South East Asia. New Holland, London. ISBN 1-85368-313-2

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