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Chinese Pond Heron

 

Head DetailThe Chinese Pond Herons (Ardeola bacchus) are East Asian wading birds.

 

Distribution / Range

These lowland birds are fairly common within their range in China and adjacent temperate and subtropical East Asia in shallow fresh and salt-water wetlands and ponds. Their range is delimited by the subarctic regions in the north, and by the mountain ranges in the west and south.

Some isolated reports of them exist from Bonzon near Gangaw – just inside the Chin State of Burma; and one report of a stray bird stopping over on Saint Paul Island, Alaska on August 4-9, 1997 (the first recorded occurrence of this species in the USA).

 

Description

The Chinese Pond Heron measures, on average, 47 cm in length. It has white wings, a yellow bill with a black tip, yellow eyes and legs.

The plumage is mostly red and white during the breeding season, and greyish-brown and flecked with white at other times.

Chinese Pond HeronsWinter Plumage

 

Chinese Pond Heron ChickDiet / Feeding

They feed on insects, fish, and crabs (crustaceans).

 

Breeding / Nesting

The Chinese Pond Heron female lays a brood of between 3 and 6 blue green eggs.

They often nests in mixed-species heronries.

 


 

Summer / Breeding PlumageChinese Pond Heron

Species Research by Sibylle Johnson


 

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