Sunbittern

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Sunbittern
Displaying bird
Displaying bird
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes (but see article)
Family: Eurypygidae
Selby, 1840
Genus: Eurypyga
Illiger, 1811
Species: E. helias
Binomial name
Eurypyga helias
Pallas, 1781

The Sunbittern, Eurypyga helias is a bittern-like bird of tropical regions of the Americas, and the sole member of the family Eurypygidae (sometimes spelled Eurypigidae) and genus Eurypyga.

Camouflaging coloration
Camouflaging coloration

The Sunbittern is normally found near wooded streams or creeks at elevations of up to 909 m. It hunts fish and other small vertebrates much in the same way as herons do. The bird has a generally subdued coloration, with fine linear patterns of black, grey and brown. Its remiges however have vividly-colored middle webs, which with wings fully spread show bright eyespots in red, yellow, and black. These are shown to other sunbitterns in courtship and threat displays, or used to startle potential predators. Like some other birds, the Sunbittern has powder down.

The domed nest is built in a tree. Two grey eggs are normally laid.

The sunbittern is usually placed in the Gruiformes, but this was always considered preliminary. In some aspects of its morphology the Sunbittern is close to the herons and their relatives (which include bitterns), but this appears to be convergent evolution due to similar lifestyles. Altogether, the bird is most similar to another enigmatic bird provisionally placed in the Gruiformes, the Kagu. Molecular studies (e.g. Fain & Houde 2004) seem to confirm that the Kagu and Sunbittern are each other's closest living relatives. They are probably not Gruiformes (though the proposed Metaves are just as weakly supported). Altogether, the two species seem to form a minor Gondwanan lineage which possibly also includes the extinct adzebills and/or the mesites, and is of unclear relation to the Gruiformes proper. Notably, the Kagu and mesites also have powder down.

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