How to Compare American Bittern with Other Bittern

American Bittern is a rare vagrant kind of bird. It is more frequent vagrant in late autumn. The length of this bird is 60-85 cm (24-33.5”) and the wing spread 110 cm (43”). The range of this bird is within most of North America, Mexico and West Indies. Vagrants have reached Greenland and Canary Is. The status of this bird is rare vagrant. 75 percent of clear records is from the British Isles before 1914. After that it has only been seen for a few times in British Isles, Ireland, Iceland, Faeroes, Norway, Denmark, Channel Islands, Spain and the Azores. There are no public records that this kind of bird has been seen. So American Bittern is very rare.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. It is usually very difficult to be seen American Bittern because it has this habitat to hide in dense vegetation of ponds, lakes, marshes like Bittern. But American Bittern often files from one spot to another at dusk and dawn. It is usually silent, but the male is said to call gloup, gloup in the breeding season. At this time, its bill will point straight up and its whole body freezes there like Bittern. Even there are a lot of similarity between American Bittern and Bittern, but there sill are some aspects from which they could be separated.

2. American Bittern is slightly smaller than Bittern. Its bill is proportionally longer and darker culmen can be seen from its bill too. Its forehead and crown are dull chestnut, but Bittern’s are blackish. American Bittern normally has a distinct dark eye-stripe, but this could not be found in Bittern at all. American Bittern has more stripes on its neck than Bittern. A prominent blackish stripe also could be found on the sides of the neck. Bittern’s Mantle, scapulars and coverts have more chevron-like markings. While American Bittern’s show less coarsely marked.

3. There are other kinds of Bittern which is similar to American Bittern including Tiger Bittern, Little Bittern and Chinese Little Bittern. However there is a lot of difference between them. The length of Tiger Bittern is 40-47cm. American Bittern is much bigger than Tiger Bittern. The range of Tiger Bittern is within Japan, China, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia. Tiger Bittern always hides in dense vegetation of ponds of forest hill. Little Bittern is smaller than Tiger Bittern. Its length is about 31-38cm. Its range is within central Europe, south Europe, north Africa, central Asia, India and China. About Chinese Little Bittern, its length is about 29-38cm. Its range is within China. Chinese Little Bittern usually lives in small ponds, lakes and swamps.