Little Heron (Butorides atricapilla) | Photos and ID

NENot EvaluatedInvertebratesMedium · 190 g

ID tip

The little heron is 35–48 cm (14–19 in) in length, weighs 130–250 g (4.6–8.8 oz) and has a wing-span of 52–60 cm (20–24 in). The sexes are alike. The plumage is vary variable, even sometimes within the same subspecies. Adults have a blue-grey back and wings, white underparts, a black cap, a dark line extends from the bill to under the eye and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below. The two Australian subspecies B. a. macrorhyncha and B. a. stagnatilis are dimorphic, with grey and rufous morphs.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Little Heron

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is May, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Little Heron

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 157 countries with regular records, and 18 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

United States Canada Mexico Costa Rica Colombia Brazil Australia South Africa India Ecuador Panama Belize Puerto Rico Peru Argentina Guatemala Cuba Thailand Honduras Taiwan Bahamas Singapore Malaysia Venezuela Nicaragua Trinidad & Tobago Guadeloupe Bermuda Indonesia Philippines Dominican Republic Cayman Islands El Salvador Curaçao United Arab Emirates Kenya Paraguay Aruba Uganda South Korea Madagascar Bolivia Guyana Uruguay Botswana Namibia Barbados Jamaica Zimbabwe Zambia China Caribbean Netherlands Tanzania Israel Sri Lanka Gambia U.S. Virgin Islands Ghana Hong Kong SAR China Bangladesh Japan Réunion Cambodia Nigeria Egypt Senegal Vietnam Grenada Oman Turks & Caicos Islands Seychelles French Guiana St. Martin Nepal Suriname Haiti Montserrat Mauritius Antigua & Barbuda St. Lucia Mozambique Eswatini Saudi Arabia Anguilla Dominica SX St. Vincent & Grenadines Congo - Kinshasa Martinique Ethiopia Rwanda Malawi Maldives Papua New Guinea British Virgin Islands Côte d’Ivoire São Tomé & Príncipe Benin St. Kitts & Nevis Guinea-Bissau Timor-Leste Burkina Faso Angola Gabon Cameroon Portugal Laos IO Bhutan Togo Solomon Islands Myanmar (Burma) Mayotte Iran Guinea Fiji Brunei Djibouti Qatar French Polynesia Equatorial Guinea Congo - Brazzaville Mali St. Barthélemy Pakistan Sierra Leone CX Russia Liberia Niger Bahrain Macao SAR China Chad CC Vanuatu ZZ Comoros Kuwait Chile Sudan Jordan Eritrea Mauritania St. Pierre & Miquelon Somalia Central African Republic North Korea Burundi Yemen Mongolia Greece Northern Mariana Islands Palau Cyprus South Sudan New Caledonia Guam

Recorded as a rare visitor in United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland, Micronesia, Sweden, Spain, Tonga, Cook Islands, Denmark, Greenland, Hungary, Kiribati, Lebanon, Lesotho, Norway, Türkiye.

About the Little Heron

The little heron is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. It is mostly sedentary and frequents both fresh and salt water habitats. It is found in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia. The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Lava HeronButorides sundevalliThe adult is slate-grey to black, which allows it to blend in with the hardened lava.

Striated HeronButorides striataThe striated heron is 35–48 cm (14–19 in) in length, weighs 130–250 g (4.6–8.8 oz) and has a wing-span of 52–60 cm (20–24 in).

Green HeronButorides virescensThe green heron is a relatively small heron; adult body length is about 44 cm (17 in).

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