Butorides Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to present | |
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Green heron (Butorides virescens) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Pelecaniformes |
Family: | Ardeidae |
Subfamily: | Ardeinae |
Genus: | Butorides Blyth, 1852 |
Type species | |
Ardea javanica [1] Horsfield, 1821 | |
Species | |
Butorides is a genus of small herons. It contains three similar species: the green heron or green-backed heron, Butorides virescens, the lava heron (Butorides sundevalli), and the striated heron, Butorides striatus. A fossil species, Butorides validipes, is known from the Early Pleistocene of Florida in the United States. Butorides is from Middle English Butor "bittern" and Ancient Greek -oides, "resembling". [2]
Adults of both extant species are about 44 centimetres (17+1⁄2 inches) long, and have a blue-black back and wings, a black cap, and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below, and have greenish-yellow legs.
The species have different underpart colours: chestnut with a white line down the front in green herons, and white or grey in striated. Both breed in small wetlands on a platform of sticks, often in shrubs or trees, sometimes on the ground. The female lays three to five eggs. Both parents incubate for about 20 days until hatching, and feed the young birds, which take a further three weeks to fledge.
Butorides herons stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. They sometimes drop food on the water's surface to attract fish.
The Butorides herons were formerly considered one species, but are now normally split as above, with the green heron breeding in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies and the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States, and the striated heron in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan, and in South America.
Birds in central Panama with buff necks have been considered to be hybrids between the two species, but the occurrence of similar birds beyond the range of migratory green herons means that there is still doubt about the species' limits of the Butorides herons.
Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
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green heron | Butorides virescens (Linnaeus, 1758) | United States west of the Rocky Mountains, Central America to central Panama, Caribbean. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
striated heron | Butorides striata (Linnaeus, 1758) Twenty one subspecies
| most of South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, the Arabian Peninsula, South and Southeast Asia, and northern & eastern Australia; ranges north to eastern Siberia during the breeding season | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
lava heron | Butorides sundevalli (Reichenow, 1877) | Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. | Size: Habitat: Diet: | LC |
The great blue heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is occasionally found in the Azores and is a rare vagrant to Europe. An all-white population found in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether these white birds are a color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 74 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus Botaurus are referred to as bitterns, and, together with the zigzag heron, or zigzag bittern, in the monotypic genus Zebrilus, form a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. Egrets do not form a biologically distinct group from herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes in breeding plumage. Herons, by evolutionary adaptation, have long beaks.
The grey heron is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia, and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water, or stalking its prey through the shallows.
The green heron is a small heron of North and Central America. Butorides is from Middle English butor "bittern" and Ancient Greek -oides, "resembling", and virescens is Latin for "greenish".
The yellow-crowned night heron, is one of two species of night heron in genus Nyctanassa. Unlike the black-crowned night heron, which has a worldwide distribution, the yellow-crowned is restricted to the Americas. It is known as the bihoreau violacé in French and the pedrete corona clara or yaboa común in some Spanish-speaking countries.
The black-crowned night heron [or black-capped night heron], commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and North and South America. In Australasia it is replaced by the closely related Nankeen night heron, with which it has hybridised in the area of contact.
The snowy egret is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, aigrette, which is a diminutive of aigron, 'heron'. The species name thula is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, applied to this species in error by Chilean naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782.
The striated heron also known as mangrove heron, little green heron or green-backed heron, is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. Striated herons are mostly sedentary and noted for some interesting behavioural traits. Their breeding habitat is small wetlands in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia, and in South America and the Caribbean. Vagrants have been recorded on Oceanic islands, such as Chuuk and Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marianas and Palau; the bird recorded on Yap on February 25, 1991, was from a continental Asian rather than from a Melanesian population, while the origin of the bird seen on Palau on May 3, 2005 was not clear.
The cocoi heron is a species of long-legged wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae found across South America. It has predominantly pale grey plumage with a darker grey crest. A carnivore, it hunts fish and crustaceans in shallow water.
The lava heron, also known as the Galápagos heron, is a species of heron endemic to the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. It is considered by some authorities — including the American Ornithological Society and BirdLife International — to be a subspecies of the striated heron, and was formerly "lumped" with this species and the green heron as the green-backed heron.