Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Pelecaniformes > Ardeidae > Botaurus > Botaurus poiciloptilus

Botaurus poiciloptilus (Australasian Bittern)

Synonyms: Ardea poiciloptila

Wikipedia Abstract

The Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus), also known as the brown bittern or matuku hūrepo, is a large bird in the heron family Ardeidae. A secretive bird with a distinctive booming call, it is more often heard than seen. Australasian bitterns are endangered in both Australia and New Zealand.
View Wikipedia Record: Botaurus poiciloptilus

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Botaurus poiciloptilus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
6
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
61
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 12.8242
EDGE Score: 4.70586
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.447 lbs (1.11 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  39 grams
Female Weight [4]  1.914 lbs (868 g)
Male Weight [4]  2.983 lbs (1.353 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [4]  55.9 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  30 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  10 %
Diet - Fish [3]  40 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  50 %
Forages - Water Surface [3]  50 %
Clutch Size [6]  4
Incubation [5]  25 days
Mating Display [2]  Non-acrobatic aerial display
Snout to Vent Length [1]  29 inches (74 cm)
Wing Span [7]  3.641 feet (1.11 m)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
New Caledonia New Caledonia No
New Zealand New Zealand No
Southwest Australia Australia No

Prey / Diet

Galaxias maculatus (Whitebait)[7]
Pseudechis porphyriacus (Red-bellied Black Snake)[7]
Ranoidea raniformis (Green And Gold Frog)[7]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Anguilla australis (Shortfin eel)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Ardeicola stellaris[8]
Ciconiphilus decimfasciatus[8]
Clinostomum hornum[9]
Contracaecum microcephalum[8]
Polymorphus brevis[10]

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
♦ 4Marchant, S.; Higgins, PJ (eds.) 1990. The handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds, Vol. 1., ratites to ducks. Oxford University Press, Melbourne
♦ 5Australasian Bittern, IUCN Heron Specialist Group
♦ 6Jetz 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
♦ 7del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 8Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
♦ 9Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
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