WETlands
a publication of Sungei Buloh Nature Park
Vol 7 No 2
Aug 2000

The Truth
about Grass

Butterfly-Plant Relationships

List of butterflies
(1999-2000)

Beauty to Behold how animals see

More about the eyes of animals

Nesting Birds
at Sungei Buloh

Nesting
Little Heron

A walk with a Volunteer Guide: Keith Hillier

Nature Photographer
with a Mission:
Julian Wong

Earth Day Programmes

Nature in
the City		  
Journal of a Nature Warden
Nesting
Little Herons
of Sungei Buloh
ramakrishnan r. k.
Senior Ranger

Little Heron
(Butorides striatus)
The Little Heron belongs to the same family as the more familiar Purple and Grey Herons. Unlike its gregarious relatives, the Little Heron leads a typically solitary life, often flying just above water or diving sharply into the tree canopy when alarmed.
It adopts a stand-and-wait hunting technique, staying motionless at a spot for a seemingly long period of time before moving with lightning speed to snatch its prey from the water.

The fast-rising tide does not deter this heron as its size allows it to perch precariously from low hanging branches close to the water's edge. At times, you can even see it running madly with its raised long black nape plumes after spotting its prey.

On 29 February 2000, while I was on my nest-checking routine, one of the Park's contractors informed me that he had spotted a nest.
 

Status: Resident and winter visitor
Description:Small heavily plumaged heron, dark blue-grey or green-grey with a nearly black crown; pale face marking, streaks on breast and narrow buff edges to wing feathers. Juveniles brown, stockier, streakier and less mottled.
Call: a distinctive short harsh skeow, k-yow or k-yek when flushed, and a high-pitched, raspy kitch-itch itch when alarmed.
Habitat: Found close to streams, ponds, marshes, mangroves and offshore islands.
Diet: Fish, crustacea, and frogs.
Upon checking the site, I located a small platform of twigs on a mangrove tree, Exocaecaria agallocha, 5m above the ground. My first impression was that it could be a Dove's nest but when I climbed up to take a closer look, I was pleasantly surprised. Two young Little Herons covered with yellow down feathers stared back at me. This is the first recorded sighting of the Little Heron's nest in the Park.

Two weeks after the discovery, the young juveniles were moving around the tree in their newly attained plumage of dull brown upperparts, streakier and less mottled lower parts. A check on 17 March 2000 at the opposite side of the island revealed another nest built on the same species of mangrove tree and at about the same height. A pair of pale greenish blue eggs greeted me this time. The canopy of the Exocaria sp. seems to provide this heron with good cover and shade for nesting.

Hopefully, we will see this species flourish in Sungei Buloh Nature Park just like the Grey and Purple Herons.
   
© Sungei Buloh Nature Park