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Mystery bird: Striated heron, Butorides striata

Even though it's not migratory, this Malaysian mystery bird species pops up in tropical wetlands around the world

Striated heron, Butorides striata (synonym, Butorides striatus; protonym, Ardea striata), Linnaeus, 1758, also known as the mangrove heron or mangrove bittern, as the little mangrove heron, the little heron, as the eastern green heron, the little green heron or as the green-backed heron, or as Anthony's green heron or as Frazar's green heron, or, colloquially, as the fly-up-the-creek, as the Shite-poke, shitpoke, or simply as the poke, photographed at Mabul island, south-eastern coast of Sabah (Malaysia).



Response: This is a juvenile striated heron, Butorides striata. This bird is one of the spear-billed, long-legged and long-necked wading birds that are included in the family Ardeidae. Collectively, they are known as herons, but some groups are known instead as egrets (these have white or pale-coloured plumage, often with long, filamentous breeding plumes, most of which are placed into the genus, Egretta) or as bitterns (secretive, often cryptically coloured, and shorter-necked herons that are placed into the subfamily, Botaurinae).

Interestingly, the striated heron was thought to be conspecific with the closely related North American green heron, B. virescens, and the lava heron, B. sundevalli, of the Galápagos Islands -- a group that was collectively known as the green-backed herons. I still remember when this split occurred because I was a grad student, taking my students into the field to study birds, and they found great delight in reminding me that I'd mis-named the green herons that we ran across. Considering that these birds are not migratory, it is notable that they have the curious habit of popping up in tropical wetlands all around the world, from west Africa, Japan to Australia and the islands of the south Pacific Ocean and even in South America. So their close taxonomic relationships with both North American and Galápagos species are not so difficult to understand after all.

Of course, the small herons can be challenging to identify, but this species can be distinguished by the yellow patch around its eyes and between its eyes and the base of the upper mandible, by the yellow basal portion of its lower mandible and by its more orangeish eye colour, none of which are present in the very similar juvenile black-crowned night-heron (a lesson I learned when I mis-identified a juvenile black-crowned night-heron as a striated heron!)




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