Secure Shopping
| American
Bittern Many a birder has compared the song of the American Bittern to the sound of a stake being driven into the ground or the distress of an old wooden water pump. Small wonder then that the bittern has picked up such colorful nicknames: Thunderpumper, Stake Driver, and Bog Bull to name a few. The secret to its song is a specially modified throat. The American Bittern’s vocal performance starts with several snaps of its bill. After this call to attention, the bittern follows with a three-note "song" that carries over half a mile through its marsh home. "Pump-er-lunk," it sings, starting with head and neck raised upward and then throwing both forward like a fly-fisherman casting a lure. If a male succeeds in luring in a female with its song, a courtship dance ensues that features white feathers erected as a kind of ruff around the neck. Males are apparently polygamous. Unlike their showy cousins the herons and egrets, American Bitterns are secretive creatures, cryptically colored to hide within the bulrushes and cattails of marshes. When threatened, bitterns pose motionless with their bill held straight up. This would seem to make it impossible for the bitterns to watch the movements of a predator, but their eyes are placed low on their heads. Even with bill thrust skyward, they can still look past it and forward. Standing in this awkward position, bitterns maintain the illusion of a stake or cattail stalk. The sneaky birds may even rotate their bodies to make sure a viewer only sees their vertically striped white throats and necks. Even more amazingly, they are reported to sway in synchrony with surrounding marsh plants caught in the wind. American Bitterns are not picky eaters. They will eat almost any kind of small animal that they encounter in the marsh or surrounding grasslands. Small fish and frogs are prominent in their diet, as well as lizards and small snakes, rodents, crayfish, mollusks, and insects. Bitterns slowly stalk their prey and after long periods of standing motionless, they strike lightning fast with their spear-like bills. American Bitterns arrive on breeding grounds from mid-March to early May and establish territories. Males often return to previously used home ranges. Nests may be placed both in the marsh grasses and cattails of a wetland or wet meadow and in the drier grassland as far as 100 yards from water. The nest is constructed primarily by the female, who also incubates the eggs. Nestlings are fed regurgitated food and leave the nest after about two weeks. American Bitterns are found throughout most of Canada and the United States from the southern Northwest Territories to south-central California in the West and from southern New Brunswick to South Carolina in the East. They rely on semi-permanent or permanent wetlands with tall emergent vegetation. Ideal habitat typically includes a marsh with open water in the center, and adjacent grassland. In fall most American Bitterns migrate to winter ranges as far south as Central America. American Bittern Range Map American Bitterns are stocky, relatively short-legged and long-necked herons. The upperparts are streaky brown and buffy colored. The underparts are boldly striped with brown longitudinally and the throat is white outlined by a dark malar stripe. The bill is long and pointed. In flight the paler wing coverts contrast with the dark wing tips and primaries. Visit Shaw
Creek Bird Supply and see our
selection of Bird
Houses, Bird
Feeders, Hummingbird
Feeders, Heated
Bird Baths & Audubon
Binoculars |