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little Bittern (female)

Ixobrychus minutus

Description:

As you can see by the beak this Bird is part of the Heron family but I was surprised to see it hunting for frogs/insects in the middle of the morning as its habits are usually dusk to evening feeding. Individuals tend to feed alone, you can see in photos 3 and 4 where it is stalking prey while walking slowly along the water’s edge or across vegetation, you can see its hunting from its perch because it has its head and neck withdrawn (photo 4), then When it spots potential prey, the little bittern extends its neck and strikes with the beak (photo 1 and 3).

Habitat:

seen in a wildlife reserve set out for wetland birds in Moraira.

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10 Comments

Debbie Stewart
Debbie Stewart 10 years ago

Haha brilliant!! here is my one:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/224...
there is a lot of bird life in Spain unfortunately its very camera shy so some of the photos I have uploaded aren't as clear as I would have liked! I still have some to upload yet from the area but will look forward to seeing yours :-)

Jared Hersch
Jared Hersch 10 years ago

Haha thats so Ironic coz I spotted a black winged stilt this afternoon just havent uploaded yet. How is the bird life in spain, any good?

Debbie Stewart
Debbie Stewart 10 years ago

Thanks Jared, this was also the first one that I had seen as I had gone to see my Dad in Spain for his Birthday and thought I'd do a bit of spotting whilst I was there. I also found a black winged stilt very similar to your avocet you posted earlier in the year!

Jared Hersch
Jared Hersch 10 years ago

Love it, nice Debbie, Great shots!!

Debbie Stewart
Debbie Stewart 10 years ago

Thank you very much Mona and Stefania, I only managed to see her because a moorhen on the same water disturbed her in the reeds.

Mona Pirih
Mona Pirih 10 years ago

Lovely series

Debbie Stewart
Debbie Stewart 11 years ago

Oh good...there may be others that need correcting to follow though!

pedrognicolau
pedrognicolau 11 years ago

Without a doubt!

Debbie Stewart
Debbie Stewart 11 years ago

gracias pedro, espero que ésta sea correcta ;-)

pedrognicolau
pedrognicolau 11 years ago

Great series of an exquisite bird.

Debbie Stewart
Spotted by
Debbie Stewart

Teulada, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain

Spotted on Apr 23, 2013
Submitted on Apr 27, 2013

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