Javan Pond Heron

Ardeola speciosa

Family: Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns · Status: Uncommon migrant · Size: 45 cm · Conservation: Least Concern

Range

Resident across central Thailand, southern Indochina and Indonesia, wintering to the Thai-Malay Peninsula.

Identification

Breeding adult has pale golden-yellow to creamy-whitish head and neck with white head-plumes, deep cinnamon-rufous breast, white belly, and blackish-slate mantle and scapulars. Indistinguishable from Chinese and Javan Pond Heron in non-breeding and juvenile plumage, in which all three species have the head and neck streaked buff and dark brown with greyish-brown mantle and scapulars.

Habitat

Freshwater wetlands such as streams, marshes, ponds and open fields.

Behaviour

Diet comprises fish, frogs, crustaceans and insects.