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The 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.
Diet / 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.
Species Research by Sibylle Johnson
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