Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Pelecaniformes > Ardeidae > Ardea > Ardea melanocephala

Ardea melanocephala (Black-headed Heron)

Wikipedia Abstract

The black-headed heron (Ardea melanocephala) is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, common throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. It is mainly resident, but some west African birds move further north in the rainy season. This species usually breeds in the wet season in colonies in trees, reedbeds or cliffs. It builds a bulky stick nest, and lays 2–4 eggs. The call is a loud croaking.
View Wikipedia Record: Ardea melanocephala

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
4
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
23
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 8.56168
EDGE Score: 2.25776
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.319 lbs (1.052 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  60 grams
Female Weight [1]  2.443 lbs (1.108 kg)
Male Weight [1]  2.198 lbs (997 g)
Weight Dimorphism [1]  11.1 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  30 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Fish [3]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Diet - Scavenger [3]  10 %
Forages - Ground [3]  50 %
Forages - Water Surface [3]  50 %
Clutch Size [5]  4
Clutches / Year [1]  1
Fledging [1]  48 days
Incubation [4]  25 days
Snout to Vent Length [1]  36 inches (92 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Agama kirkii (Kirk's agama)[4]
Psammophylax tritaeniatus (Striped Skaapsteker)[4]
Pyxicephalus adspersus (African bullfrog)[4]
Trachylepis quinquetaeniata (Five-lined Mabuya)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Bdeogale crassicauda (Bushy-tailed Mongoose)1

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0