Yellow Bittern

The yellow bittern is a small bittern 36–38cm long with a short neck and longish bill. It has yellow-green legs, an ivory bill darker on top, a short black tail and yellow irises; the male has a dark cap, chestnut head and neck, a dull yellow body above and buff below. It lives in freshwater marshes and swamps (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds from the northern Indian subcontinent east to the Russian Far East, Japan and Indonesia, and is mainly resident, though some northern birds migrate short distances, and it has been recorded as a vagrant in Alaska. It lays four to six pale blue-green eggs on small constructed platforms of reeds or twigs, and feeds on insects, fish, amphibians, crustaceans and molluscs (Wikipedia, general species account).