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Thursday 5 June 2014

Bird Of the Day No. 5 The Bittern

Hi, sorry for not posting yesterday, didn't have enough time!

My Opinion: The Bittern is an iconic bird that has been a main part of Springwatch this year. Having found a nest new behaviours have been recorded such as eggs hatching at certain time making the success rate higher. The mother has also been seen eating one of the chicks, sadly not making it through its early years. But is this a common occurrence? Well we don't know, in fact this is the only nest captured in full colour! What makes it more amazing is the rarity of the Bittern, approximately only 100 pairs around (even though through the past years has been increasing), this makes it harder to locate the secretive Bittern! It is one of my favourite birds with its uniquely positioned eyes, incredible camouflage and tummy-rumbling call! I have only seen them on three occasions, the first was a glimpse of it moving through the reeds at WWT Slimbridge, the second flying out from the reeds in Hamwall and 3 flying up from the reeds in Marazion Marsh! I'd love to hear their call though but I'm unable to get to a location early enough!

Interesting fact: there's two different subspecies of our common bittern, one in Africa and one here, every Spring part of the Eurasian race spread to Africa. This causes a race cross over!

Identification: A small heron with a brown and black camouflage that resembles reed beds. Stays very still while on edge of reeds and eats small too large fish such as the Stickleback to the Tench. A tip is to never give in, Bitterns are very patient so need yours to match for a meeting!

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