Bird Guide: Water Birds, Game Birds, and Birds of Prey East of the Rockies

by Chester A. Reed

LEAST BITTERN

191. Ixobrychus exilis. 13 in.

Male with the crown and back glossy black; female with these areas hair-brown, and streaked with brown below. These diminutive little bitterns are very shy and retiring, and seldom seen away from the reed grown marshes or ponds that they frequent.

Notes.—A hoarse croak, and a softly repeated “coo.”

Nest.—A platform of dead rushes twisted about the living stalks. The 3 or 4 eggs are pale bluish white. (1.2 × .9); May, June.

Range.—Breeds from the Gulf States, locally to Southern Canada; winters from the Gulf States southward.