Birds of Singapore
by the Bird Society of Singapore
Botaurus cinnamomeus
Family: Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns · Status: Uncommon migrant and rare resident · Size: 38–41 cm · Conservation: Least Concern
Resident across the Indian subcontinent to China, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines; northern populations winter south to the Thai-Malay Peninsula.
Male is almost entirely rich cinnamon, including wings, tail, and flight feathers, with a pale malar stripe and buffier underparts. Female has streaks from the throat down to the breast and has slightly darker upperparts with vague buffish speckling on scapulars and upperwing-coverts and a variably dark crown. Juvenile resembles female but has buffish streaks on sides of head and dense buffish speckling on upperparts giving a "checkered" appearance. In flight, lacks black primary tips seen in Yellow and Von Schrenck's Bittern. Female and juvenile are paler overall and lack prominent white spotting seen in Von Schrenck's Bittern. Like Black and Von Schrenck's Bittern, the eye has a dark mark behind the iris giving it a barrell-shaped appearance compared to the clean-looking circular iris in Yellow Bittern.
Grasslands and marshes near freshwater wetlands and occasionally mangroves.
Active mainly around dawn and dusk. Sometimes perches motionless for long periods.