Little bittern

Description

The little bittern or common little bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) is a wading bird in the heron family,Ardeidae.Ixobrychus is from Ancient Greek ixias,a reed-like plant and brukhomai,to bellow,and minutus is Latin for "small".This bittern is native to the Old World,breeding in Africa,central and southern Europe,western and southern Asia,and Madagascar.Birds from temperate regions in Europe and western Asia are migratory,wintering in Africa and further south in Asia,while those nesting in the tropics are sedentary.It is rare north of its breeding range.In Britain there were intermittent reports of breeding in the nineteenth century,and again in 1946 and 1957,but none of these records were proven.The first proven British breeding record is from Yorkshire in 1984,and the second from Somerset in 2010.