Herons & Bitterns - In Belize | Belize Budget Suites

Herons & Bitterns - in Belize

Herons

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron - Whether poised at a river bend or cruising the coastline with slow, deep wingbeats, the Great Blue Heron is a majestic sight. This stately heron with its subtle blue-gray plumage often stands motionless as it scans for prey or wades belly deep with long, deliberate steps. They may move slowly, but Great Blue Herons can strike like lightning to grab a fish or snap up a gopher. In flight, look for this widespread heron’s tucked-in neck and long legs trailing out behind.
BELIZE HABITAT - Most wet areas that are not densly forested; especially common at shrimp farms and shwllow lagoons. White morph confined to mangroves, beaches, littoral forest in coastal areas and cayes. Nests singly or, more typically, in small colonies in mangroves and littoral forest on small cayes.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common winter visitor in lowlands throughout, including cayes, primarily August to May; fewer in summer. Small nesting colonies on Cayo Rosario (off Ambergris Caye) and in Shipstern Lagoon Corozal. Uncommon white morph found on north cayes and occasionally, along mainland coast south to Dangriga.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Despite their impressive size, Great Blue Herons weigh only 5 to 6 pounds thanks in part to their hollow bones—a feature all birds share.
Great Blue Herons in the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada have benefited from the recovery of beaver populations, which have created a patchwork of swamps and meadows well-suited to foraging and nesting.
Along the Pacific coast, it’s not unusual to see a Great Blue Heron poised atop a floating bed of kelp waiting for a meal to swim by.
The white form of the Great Blue Heron, known as the "great white heron," is found nearly exclusively in shallow marine waters along the coast of very southern Florida, the Yucatan Peninsula, and in the Caribbean. Where the dark and white forms overlap in Florida, intermediate birds known as "Wurdemann's herons" can be found. They have the body of a Great Blue Heron, but the white head and neck of the great white heron.
Great Blue Herons have specialized feathers on their chest that continually grow and fray. The herons comb this “powder down” with a fringed claw on their middle toes, using the down like a washcloth to remove fish slime and other oils from their feathers as they preen. Applying the powder to their underparts protects their feathers against the slime and oils of swamps.
Great Blue Herons can hunt day and night thanks to a high percentage of rod-type photoreceptors in their eyes that improve their night vision.
Great Blue Herons congregate at fish hatcheries, creating potential problems for the fish farmers. A study found that herons ate mostly diseased fish that would have died shortly anyway. Sick fish spent more time near the surface of the water where they were more vulnerable to the herons.
The oldest recorded Great Blue Heron was found in Texas when it was at least 24 years, 6 months old.
Thanks to specially shaped neck vertebrae, Great Blue Herons can quickly strike prey at a distance.

Green Heron

Green Heron - From a distance, the Green Heron is a dark, stocky bird hunched on slender yellow legs at the water’s edge, often hidden behind a tangle of leaves. Seen up close, it is a striking bird with a velvet-green back, rich chestnut body, and a dark cap often raised into a short crest. These small herons crouch patiently to surprise fish with a snatch of their daggerlike bill. They sometimes lure in fish using small items such as twigs or insects as bait.
BELIZE HABITAT - Forest lined lagoons, ponds, rivers and streams; freshwater and brackish lagoons; mangroves; littoral forests; occasionally mudflats. Much more likely to be seen in open than Least Bittern. Nests in littoral forest and mangroves.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common winter visitor; less common in summer. Nests on cayes and locally on mainland.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The Green Heron is part of a complex of small herons that sometimes are considered one species. When lumped, they are called Green-backed Heron. When split, they are the Green Heron, the widespread Striated Heron, and the Galapagos Heron.
The Green Heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species. It often creates fishing lures with bread crusts, insects, and feathers, dropping them on the surface of the water to entice small fish.
Green Herons usually hunt by wading in shallow water, but occasionally they dive for deep-water prey and need to swim back to shore—probably with help from the webs between their middle and outer toes. One juvenile heron was seen swimming gracefully for more than 60 feet, sitting upright “like a little swan,” according to one observer.
Like many herons, the Green Heron tends to wander outside of its breeding range after the nesting season is over. Most of the wanderers stay nearby as they search for good feeding habitat, but some travel long distances. Individuals have turned up as far away as England and France.
The oldest Green Heron on record was at least 7 years, 11 months old when it was found in Mexico in 1979. It had been banded in Oklahoma in 1971.

Night Herons

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Yellow Crowned Night Heron - While not as slender as a typical heron, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron’s smooth purple-gray colors, sharp black-and-white face, and long yellow plumes lend it a touch of elegance. They forage at all hours of the day and night, stalking crustaceans in shallow wetlands and wet fields. Their diet leans heavily on crabs and crayfish, which they catch with a lunge and shake apart, or swallow whole. They’re most common in coastal marshes, barrier islands, and mangroves, but their range extends inland as far as the Midwest.
BELIZE HABITAT - Towns, lawns, shores of rivers, estuaries, ponds, swamps, marshes, mudflats, mangroves; often seen foraging beneath streetlights. Roosts communally in large trees and mangrove forests; nests in mangroves and littoral forest.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common to common resident in lowlands nearly throughout, including cayes, but confirmed nesting sites relatively few. Generally more common in coastal areas than inland.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Yellow-crowned Night-Herons forage both during the day and at night—in coastal areas the tide can trump the time of day: most foraging occurs from 3 hours before high tide to 3 hours after.
Along the Atlantic Coast, the timing of their breeding season depends on when crabs emerge in the spring, which itself depends on local temperatures.
Found year-round along the crustacean-rich southern Atlantic coast, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons in North America can also breed inland by feeding on crayfish in streams. They may breed as far north as Michigan and Ontario, and individuals can appear even farther north and west in spring (mainly adults) and late summer or early fall (juveniles).
This species shows up several times in the fossil record, and the earliest recorded fossil is 2–2.5 million years old (from Sarasota, Florida).
The oldest Yellow-crowned Night-Heron on record, banded in Mexico in 1974, was at least 6 years, 3 months old.
To build their nests, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons usually break dead, brittle twigs and branches directly from standing vegetation. In some colonies, they may completely strip trees of their twigs. They also sometimes steal twigs from other nests.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron - Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world.
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, lagoons, estuaries, mangroves; roosts communally in trees.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon to locally common winter visitor on mainland, mid-September to late May; also recorded on Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker. Small numbers remain through summer at Crooked Tree, where it may nest.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

Scientists find it easy, if a bit smelly and messy, to study the diet of young Black-crowned Night-Herons—the nestlings often disgorge their stomach contents when approached.
Black-crowned Night Heron nest in groups that often include other species, including herons, egrets, and ibises.
A breeding Black-crowned Night-Heron will brood any chick that is placed in its nest. The herons apparently don’t distinguish between their own offspring and nestlings from other parents.
Young Black-crowned Night-Herons leave the nest at the age of 1 month but cannot fly until they are 6 weeks old. They move through the vegetation on foot, joining up in foraging flocks at night.
The familiar evening sight and sound of the Black-crowned Night-Heron was captured in this description from Arthur Bent’s Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds: “How often, in the gathering dusk of evening, have we heard its loud, choking squawk and, looking up, have seen its stocky form, dimly outlined against the gray sky and propelled by steady wing beats, as it wings its way high in the air toward its evening feeding place in some distant pond or marsh!”
The oldest Black-crowned Night-Heron on record was a female who was at least 21 years, 5 month old.

Boat-Billed Heron

Boat Billed Heron

Boat Billed Heron - The boat-billed heron grows to about 21 inches long. Adults are pale grey to white in color, with chestnut-colored abdomens and black flanks. The massive, broad, scoop-like bill, which gives rise to this species' name, is mainly black. This bird is also adorned with a crest which is thought to be used in mate attraction as it is larger in males. The sexes are similar in appearance, the main differences being that females are slightly smaller, grayer in appearance, and have shorter crests than males. Newly hatched nestlings have green-yellow skin, with their upperparts covered in gray down feathers. Their upper bill is black and they have green-yellow legs. Juveniles are darker in color than adults and lack a crest.
BELIZE HABITAT - Forages along shores of estuaries, ponds, and rivers at night; roots inconspicuously in trees along banks of rivers, lakes, and swamps during the day. Nests in colonies in mangroves and other dense streamside trees.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon to fairly common resident primarily in coastal lowlands, including Ambergris Caye and Turneffe Islands, and once on Caye Caulker.

Agami Heron

Agami Heron - Reclusive, rarely seen heron of humid tropical lowlands. Found along quiet forest streams and locally in mangroves. Walks slowly and stealthily hunting from the water’s edge or a low overhanging branch. Note the very long and slender, dagger-tipped bill. Adult plumage is dark overall, with a beautiful silvery spray of lacy neck plumes. Immature is browner overall, without the neck plumes.
BELIZE HABITAT - Dense foliage along edges of swamps, rivers, lagoons; best seen on exposed shorelines in dry season. Nests in mangroves.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon and local on mainland in dry season, apparently throughout, but fairly common at Crooked Tree Belize. Nesting colony near mouth of Moho River, possibly also Money River in Toledo district.

Bare-Throated Tiger Heron

Bare Throated Tiger Heron

Bare Throated Tiger Heron - A large but rather short-legged, primal-looking heron of mangroves and freshwater marshes in tropical lowlands. Often in areas with trees, but also around ponds in rather open marshes. All plumages have naked yellow throat skin (not always easy to see), greenish legs. Adult has gray cheeks, finely barred plumage, and rusty thighs; immature is boldy barred blackish and warm brown (hence the name ‘tiger-heron’).
BELIZE HABITAT - Marshes, lagoons, streamsides, swamp forest, occasional mangroves. Frequently perches in open, either on the ground or in a tree.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Locally fairly common resident at low elevations on mainland and Ambergris Caye.

Tri-Colored Heron

Tri-Colored Heron - Medium-sized heron with slaty-blue back and white belly. Bill is longer than other herons. Adults show yellowish plumes on lower back, purplish neck, and paler throat. Immatures show bright rufous neck and shoulders. Often active as its forages; moving swiftly in the shallows chasing after fish.
BELIZE HABITAT - Mudflats, estuaries, lagoons, coastal shorelines, marshes. Nests in mangroves in small colonies, often mixed with other herons.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common to common winter visitor in coastal areas and on cayes; less common inland and in summer. Nests in Shipstern Lagoon in Corozal, and on cayes west of Ambergris Caye.

Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron - Medium-sized dark heron. Long bill is pale blue at the base and darker at the tip. Adults are grayish-blue overall; purplish head and neck contrast with body. Immatures are white in their first year, often showing splotches of gray-blue by their first spring. Greenish-yellow legs. Forages in wetlands. Moves slowly through the shallows with neck outstretched. More elongated body than Snowy Egret.
BELIZE HABITAT - Unforested and sparsely forested areas with standing water. Congregates at shallow water lagoons, shrimp farms, rice fields; less common along forest lined streams and rivers.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Common winter visitor, primarily August to May, with a few immatures remaining through summer. Does not nest in Belize.

Bitterns

Least Bittern

Least Bittern - The furtive Least Bittern is often little more than a voice in the reeds that is frustratingly difficult to locate. But these diminutive herons reward patience and will charm birders persistent enough to discover them in their wetland haunts. They’re smartly clad in chestnut, buff, and black, with the male more richly colored than the female. Although drainage and development of wetlands has reduced their populations, Least Bitterns persist over much of their historical range, and are most readily seen during the breeding season.
BELIZE HABITAT - Tall grass marshes, where it stays well hidden.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Resident locally south at least to south Orange Walk and central Belize, possibly Ambergris Caye. More widespread in winter, occurring annually as far south as the rice fields near Big Falls, Toledo. Recorded once on Half Moon Caye, on Apri 17, 1958.

INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

When alarmed, the Least Bittern freezes in place with its bill pointing up, turns both eyes toward the source of alarm, and sometimes sways to resemble windblown marsh vegetation.
Perhaps surprisingly, tiny Least Bitterns use areas with deeper water than the much larger, longer-legged American Bittern. Least Bitterns can do this because their long, agile toes and curved claws allow them to grasp reeds and hunt small prey while suspended from these precarious over-water perches.
John James Audubon noted that a young captive Least Bittern was able to walk with ease in a 1.5-inch gap between two books, even though the bird's body normally measured 2.25 inches across—indicating that it could compress its body to an extraordinary degree to squeeze between marsh stems and reeds.
A very rare dark form of Least Bittern, known as “Cory’s Least Bittern,” was once considered a separate species. With a black bill, entirely black back, and rich chestnut cheeks, belly, and wing coverts, this distinctive bird was highly prized by bird “collectors” as soon as it was discovered in Florida in 1885. Cory’s Least Bitterns were seen frequently around the Great Lakes, especially around Toronto, in the late 1800s, before its favored marshes were destroyed. Only 7 or 8 records of this mysterious bird are known worldwide since 1973.
As in many other small herons, Least Bittern’s loral area (between bill and eye) is unfeathered, and this skin can change colors, depending on what the bird is doing. During courtship, copulation, or territorial conflict, the normally yellowish skin can flush brilliant cherry red in males—a sight worth watching for in spring and summer.
In some brackish marshes, notably in South Carolina, Least Bitterns may nest close to colonies of Boat-tailed Grackles, which typically choose areas without ground predators. The grackles also aggressively chase or mob hawks and gulls, another advantage for the bitterns.
Least Bitterns occasionally turn up far away from their usual range and habitat. In September 2007, for instance, a migrant was found at Vila do Porto, Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Researchers tracked breeding Least Bitterns in western New York and found the birds used about 24 acres while feeding themselves and their offspring—about the area of 10 city blocks.

American Bittern

American Bittern - You'll need sharp eyes to catch sight of an American Bittern. This streaky, brown and buff heron can materialize among the reeds, and disappear as quickly, especially when striking a concealment pose with neck stretched and bill pointed skyward. These stealthy carnivores stand motionless amid tall marsh vegetation, or patiently stalk fish, frogs, and insects. They are at their most noticeable in spring, when the marshes resound with their odd booming calls that sounds like the gulps of a thirsty giant.
BELIZE HABITAT - Tall grass marshes, rice fields.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Occasional winter visitor October to April; recorded from Orange Walk, Belize to Toledo, and Ambergris Caye.

INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

American Bitterns are heard more often than seen. Their booming, clacking, gulping calls have earned them some colorful nicknames, including "stake-driver," "thunder-pumper," "water-belcher," and "mire-drum."
When field scientists want to trap American Bitterns for study, they take advantage of the males' aggressive territoriality. Knowing that the birds will respond to other males' calls from as far as 1,600 feet away, or to the image of another male, the researchers use recorded calls and mirrors to draw the birds in.
The American Bittern's yellow eyes can focus downward, giving the bird's face a comically startled, cross-eyed appearance. This visual orientation presumably enhances the bird's ability to spot and capture prey. The eyes turn orange during breeding season.
The oldest recorded American Bittern was over 8 years 4 months old, when it was found in Ontario where it had been banded as an adult 8 years previously.

Pinnated Bittern

Pinnated Bittern - The pinnated bittern is a large heron, measuring between 25–30 inches with a weight that ranges from 1.2 to 2.6 pounds; males typically weigh considerably more than females. Sexes are similarly plumaged, but females tend to be smaller than males and have brown instead of black on the tail.Both adults and immature birds are generally buffy, though heavily marked with cryptic patterning. Juveniles tend to have a somewhat more reddish ground color. The throat is unmarked white, the foreneck is white broadly streaked with pale brown, and the rest of the neck is buff with thin black barring. The breast and belly are white with broad pale brown streaks, while the back is buff, heavily streaked and barred with black. Rectrices are black in males and brown in females; the slate-grey remiges create a conspicuous two-toned effect in flight.
The bill is stout and strong, yellowish overall with a dusky upper mandible. The bare facial skin is bright yellow, with a brown line running across the lores. The legs are greenish-yellow, and the iris is yellow.
BELIZE HABITAT - Tall grass and reeds in wet areas.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Uncommon and rarely seen local residents south at least to central Belize, possibly to Toledo (presence confirmed; breeding not established). Unrecorded in Belize prior to 1970, but probably overlooked.

Limpkin

Limpkin - The gangly, brown-and-white Limpkin looks a bit like a giant rail or perhaps a young night-heron. Its long bill is bent and twisted at the tip, an adaptation for removing snails from the shell. Limpkins are tropical wetland birds whose range reaches into Florida. They specialize in eating apple snails, which they hunt both day and night, and they often leave telltale piles of snail shells at the edges of freshwater wetlands where hunting is good. This bird’s haunting cries, heard mostly at night, are otherworldly and unforgettable.

BELIZE HABITAT - Freshwater marshes, lagoosn, wet savannas; less common in wet meadows, roadside ditches.
Where can I find this bird in Belize?
Fairly common to locally common resident on mainland nearly throughout but most plentiful in coastal lagoons; also recorded on north Ambergris Caye, where perhaps resident.
INTERESTING BIRD FACTS

The name Limpkin purportedly comes from the bird’s gait, which appeared to early European settlers as a limp, perhaps when pursued by hunters with dogs. At such times, the usually stolid bird gallops away at unexpectedly high speeds.
The Limpkin's bill is uniquely adapted to foraging on apple snails. The closed bill has a gap just before the tip that makes the bill act like tweezers. The tip itself is often curved slightly to the right so it can be slipped into the right-handed curve of the snail’s shell.
The outermost flight feather (primary) in Limpkins is sickle-shaped but broad at the tip, and is especially pronounced in males. This feather can be used to make a loud buzzing sound called winnowing when the bird flies, and this sound is apparently used to mark territory, even at night.
The Limpkin is the only member of its taxonomic family, Aramidae. Although it resembles herons and ibises in general form, the Limpkin is generally considered to be more closely related to rails and cranes.