Bittern habitat. Bittern, or great bittern. Description of the great bittern

Field signs. Its size, unique structure and color make it possible to unmistakably distinguish it in nature from our other bitterns. In spring and early summer, without observing the birds themselves, you can unmistakably determine their presence by their peculiar booming sounds. Great bittern leads a nocturnal lifestyle. During the daytime, being extremely cautious, it prefers to stay in dense reed supports and other thickets, but during migration it often spends the day in places that are more open and accessible.

Area. Europe from England (currently only in Norfolk and Suffolk, formerly in other areas, particularly southern Scotland, Wales, Ireland), Spain and Portugal south to the Mediterranean (but absent from breeding grounds in Greece and islands except Sardinia and Majorca), north to the North Sea coast, Denmark, southern Sweden, south-eastern Finland; in the European part of the USSR.

Africa - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the south of the mainland. Asia - temperate zone to the north, up to about 58° N. w. near Tobolsk, and in the Yenisei basin and about 62° in Yakutia; south to Palestine, Asia Minor, Iran (perhaps in Iraq and Afghanistan), Dzungaria and Kashgaria (Lake Lob-nor), northwestern Mongolia, southern Transbaikalia and the northern bend of the Yellow River; east to Sakhalin, Japan and perhaps Zhili Province in Northern China. Wintering areas of northern bitterns have been recorded in northern and tropical Africa, Arabia, northern India, Burma, and southern China.

Nature of stay. In northern and central Europe and Asia, the great bittern is a migratory bird. However, it winters in places where bodies of water do not freeze - already in Germany, southern Sweden, Poland, etc. Regularly - near the Mediterranean Sea, in southern Transcaucasia, in Turkmenistan near the Black Sea. Southern populations are sedentary.
We are a breeding, migratory bird of the northern and middle parts of the country. In the south, in some places it belongs to the wintering and even sedentary species. Our wintering places are as follows. A small number of individuals overwinter near the ice-free water bodies of Crimea. Some individuals stay on the Black Sea coast all winter, wintering in Armenia, in its lower parts. The number of wintering individuals is limited. In winter, it is found in small numbers in the coastal part of the Volga delta. A small number winters within Tajikistan.

The spring arrival of the bittern is very extended. The first individuals appear early, when there is still snow, snowstorms and significant night frosts are not uncommon. The gross migration occurs about two weeks, or even a whole month, later than the first migrants and often coincides with the time when the southern individuals have already begun to reproduce. In the south of the European part of the Union, the first bitterns arrive on various dates in March.

In the Caucasus, where some large bitterns overwinter, it is difficult to determine the beginning of the spring arrival. In any case, in Transcaucasia at the very beginning of March the number of birds increases sharply and remains elevated at least throughout April. In the last third of March, bitterns fly along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, and at the end of March they reach the Volga delta. In Siberia, bitterns also appear either in the second half of April or in the first half of May.

Thus, at the end of April or at the beginning of May, the first birds appear everywhere where they nest. The mass arrival occurs somewhat later, and ends completely much later than the arrival of the leading individuals. A particularly large gap between the arrival of early and late birds is observed in the southern zone, where migratory birds consist of different populations.

The beginning of the autumn departure of the great bittern coincides with the onset of autumn bad weather and cold weather and continues until the onset of real frosts. In the northern European parts of their range, bitterns begin to move south probably in late August and early September. On the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, where bitterns do not nest, they appear already in mid-September and are there until the beginning of January. In Yakutia, the bulk of birds fly away at the beginning of the last third of September, rarely at the end (Skaloy). In the Tyumen region, the autumn migration undoubtedly begins in the very last days of August and is well expressed in the first third of September; at the same time, the migration of birds was noted near Irkutsk.

The flight occurs at night, and occasionally during the day in cloudy weather. As a rule, birds fly in single individuals and rarely in pairs, but sometimes a dozen birds stretch out at a short distance from each other. Sushkin once saw two bitterns joining a flock of swans. At the height of the spring and autumn migration, bitterns can often be raised in dozens in very small areas, but each individual flies out separately and, apparently, is not connected with the neighboring one. It can be assumed that large concentrations of birds are caused not by “social” instincts, but simply by the presence of favorable days. During the autumn migration, bitterns rise from daytime stops in the late twilight or even after dawn, when the birds are almost impossible to see, but from the cry it is possible to establish that the flying bittern makes a large circle above the lake and only, having risen to a great height, chooses a certain direction. For a day in the fall, bitterns settle down at dawn, when it is light enough to see the bird. At the same time, it is also often possible to hear their voices in the air. The resting places of migratory birds are extremely diverse. Bitterns perch on tall willows and other trees; more often in the fall they perch in the reeds along the shores of lakes, and in the spring on piles of reeds, black grass, and wild hemp, crushed by snow.

Photo: Flickr.com

Biotope. Vast water or wetlands: ponds, lakes, river bays and floodplains, heavily swampy meadows and small alder growths and abandoned peat mines, if the latter are replete with reed and reed supports, thickets of tall grass with scattered groups of willow bushes here and there. Much less frequently, for example in the Minsk region, bitterns settle among dense willow thickets. A prerequisite for the habitat of a great bittern is the presence of small areas of clean water interspersed among dense vegetation. Everywhere during the breeding season, the bittern prefers stagnant bodies of water, but occasionally nests on small islands of remote rivers with weak currents. Unlike our other herons, the bittern's feeding biotope almost completely coincides with the nesting biotope, and the birds do not go beyond the nesting area. Bitterns drink several different stations after the chicks leave the nests, during the migration period and during the wintering grounds. Birds can be flushed out of reeds, sedges and shrubs of water bodies of the most varied nature, and occasionally far from the water body. Everywhere, bitterns avoid encountering humans, hiding in the most remote and inaccessible thickets. At the same time, they very often settle near fishing camps and near large populated areas.

Subspecies and varying characters. Two subspecies, differing in details of biology, as well as size and color. Very similar species are common in Australia and America.

Number. Over the vast area of ​​distribution, the number of great bitterns varies. The bittern is very numerous in Belarus in Polesie, in most of the territory of Ukraine along the lower and middle sections of rivers flowing into the Black Sea. In the middle forest zone of the European part of the Union, the number decreases significantly. In the Volga valley it is numerous in the middle reaches, only common in the delta. In the lower part of the Urals, bitterns are found in large numbers.

On the contrary, throughout Transcaucasia and Central Asia the bittern is a rare bird. It is also rare in Western Siberia, where the number increases slightly only in rare years. In the Baikal region, the bittern population density turns out to be very significant. Further east, it should again be universally classified only as a common breeding bird. Due to its widespread distribution and high density in places, the total number of bitterns in our country is enormous. This explains the large concentration of birds in suitable places during migration.

Reproduction. Sexual maturity at one year of age. Unlike many of our other herons, the bittern does not form colonial nests. Each pair strives to isolate itself from the close proximity of its own kind and from other related species. However, in the most favorable conditions for nesting, individual pairs settle close to each other, forming a patch with a high population density. In small bodies of water, nests are built on hummocks protruding from the water among thickets of reeds, reeds or among sparse shrubs; sometimes they are laid on the damp soil of a bog. On deep lakes, the nest is often placed on a pile of dead vegetation stuck among the reeds or, finally, on reaches completely covered with water lily leaves (Zarudny, 1888). In the Irkutsk region, bitterns choose very small islands for nesting - hummocks, completely covered with tall and dense sedge. The nest in these cases is placed on solid ground, near the edge of clear water (Spangenberg). The nest is a casual construction made from the stems and leaves of emergent plants.

The completed nest has a rounded shape, but since the bird enters and leaves it in the same place, one edge of the nest is dented and trampled (Shnitnikov, 1913). The transverse diameter of freshly built nests is about 50 cm, their height is about 35 cm. As the chicks grow up, the nest is gradually immersed in water and built on by old people.

As a result, nests found in summer are disproportionately large, reaching 90 cm in transverse diameter, with a height of 50 cm (Zarudny, 1888). The number of eggs in clutches ranges from 3 to 5, with rare exceptions there are 6, occasionally 7 (the latter number according to Western European authors). Eggs are laid at intervals of 2-3 days.
The shape and especially the color of the bittern's eggs differ from the eggs of all our other herons. Their shape is regular, ovoid, and their color is clay-gray. They have something in common with pheasant eggs, but are large in size and their shells lack shine. Relative to the size of the bird, the eggs are somewhat small. Their size: (12) 49.0-50.5 x 37.0 -38.1 mm, average 49.5 x 37.6 mm. Western Europeans (100) have 47.5-58.2 x 35.5-41.5, with an average of 52.62 x 38.54 mm (Witherby, 1939).

The great bittern begins breeding very soon after arriving at the nesting sites, but nesting does not occur simultaneously in the same areas. Some pairs begin to nest early, others, compared to the early ones, are very late. The reasons for this are not clear (different ages?). The timing of the start of reproduction in different parts of the range varies almost in the same way as the timing of the arrival of the first individuals. Unfortunately, specific data on reproduction are extremely scarce and do not allow us to present a general picture.

Photo: Flickr.com

In Kharkov region. laying at the end of the first third of May or in the last days of this month, rarely earlier. Hatched eggs can be found later. Independent chicks are found from the second third of July, but more often from mid-July to the first days of the second third of August.

Hatching occurs in early June, and in the last third of this month the young leave the nests. Incubation from the first egg lasts 25-26 days. The main responsibility for incubation lies with the female, but the male probably also takes part. In the Pskov region. There are known cases of hunting males with brood spots (Zarudny, 1910). The male sometimes feeds the female sitting on the nest and brings food to the young. The female begins to incubate after laying the first egg, as a result of which the chicks in the same nest differ greatly in growth from each other (Zarudny, 1888). A bird sitting on a nest behaves extremely carefully and, if there is danger, leaves the nest even at the moment the chicks hatch (Shnitnikov, 1913). In general, an incubating bittern allows a person to come very close to it, and then either leaves on foot or flies away, relatively rarely describing circles above the nest, as other herons do.

When chicks appear at a human’s nest, they make the following sounds or squeaks in quick succession, open their mouths wide, spreading their lower jaw, and can leave the nest already at the age of 2-3 weeks. Once in the water, they help with their wings and try to climb into the nest onto hummocks or reeds. They become flightable at 2 months of age. Grown-up chicks stay together for a relatively short time, the family soon breaks up and each leads an independent life. Breeding males apparently continue their spring “thumping” throughout the incubation of the eggs by the female.

Shedding. The young replace their small plumage in the first autumn from July to January. In adults, there is one complete annual molt between August and January, beginning at the end of the breeding season and ending in the wintering grounds. The details are poorly understood.

Nutrition. Mainly animal, and according to some authors (for example, Osterman, 1912; Isakov and Vorobyov, 1940) and plant foods. The main one is undoubtedly fish: crucian carp, tench, perch and, especially often, small pikes, reaching about 27 cm in length (Shnitnikov, 1913), and in some cases about 35 cm (Zhitkov and Buturlin, 1906). In addition to fish, bitterns eat large numbers of frogs, tadpoles, newts, worms, as well as insects associated with the aquatic environment and, apparently rarely, mammals. The examined stomachs of birds caught near Lankaran in winter contained swimming beetles ( Macrodytes), water lovers ( Nudrophilidae) and smoothies ( Notorieties), as well as plant remains (Isakov and Vorobyov, 1940). In other cases, here on February 27, a mole cricket, several swimming beetles and a newt were found in the stomach. At other times, it was possible to find leaf-eating beetles and fish in the stomach (Radde, 1885). When opening a fledgling caught on August 24 in the Naurzum Nature Reserve, a large water rat was found in the esophagus (Mikheev, 1938). The food of the young mainly consists of tadpoles (Zarudny, 1888). Waiting for prey, bitterns stand motionless for a long time at the water's edge, and then quickly grab it with their beak. Less often, in search of food, birds walk in shallow water or on the leaves of aquatic plants like rails.

A drawn-out, nasal “kau” is heard in the autumn in the starry heights. From this sharp, unexpected cry, a slight fear creeps into the soul. It is in the darkness of the night that a marsh bird flies alone to the south - bittern.

Its mysterious nocturnal lifestyle and strange habits have given rise to many different rumors among the people - superstitious people associate this bird with evil spirits. The night bull, or bittern, can scare anyone at night with its screams. It looks like a small bird, but it hoots so ominously that it’s creepy.

One of the old legends of the northern peoples says that the bittern itself does not fly to its homeland - they say that the cranes bring it on their backs. And where they throw the bird to the ground, there it begins to scream at night, bringing misfortune to people.

People heard a bad omen in the mysterious cry of the bittern, and the bird itself was considered a symbol of ugliness. A bony person with an awkward figure, or an immobile person, overwhelmed by life, was previously compared to a bittern. In Yakut, bittern is bogorgono. This name is given by the cry, reminiscent of the roar of a bear. Another name is u-ogus, that is, water bull. The Nanais call her Achaki.

It is not often possible to observe this bird in nature. She arrives in May, alone and always unnoticed. Her presence is only revealed by her loud hooting. These sounds are reminiscent of a bull roaring or hooting into an empty barrel. Onomatopoeically, the spring cry of the bittern can be expressed with the syllables “yp-yp-yp-prumb, yp-yp-prumb, yp-prumb...”. In Ukraine it is called bugai, or water bull.

In swampy places, along the edges of lakes, among hummocks and thickets of reed grass, sedge and reeds, this cautious, unsociable river bird lives. It is colored to match the color of thick yellowish-brown thickets of grass and is hardly noticeable. Only sometimes does a frightened bittern fly up; usually, when danger appears, it prefers to hide. It freezes in a column, pointing its beak upward and merging with the stems of dry grass, pretending to be either a twig or a small snag. The reddish-brown plumage of the bird blends into the background of the surrounding area.

One day at dawn I camouflaged myself among the thick grass on the shore of a small lake. Ahead there was a clear stretch where ducks often perched. It was getting dark. Very close, a large bittern silently descended into the coastal sedge and froze. Deciding to look at it, I walked up to the landing site and, bending down, began to carefully peer into the thickets. Suddenly a strong blow to the forehead stunned me, and immediately the insidious bittern noisily flew out of the thickets and disappeared into the night sky. A bleeding deep wound on my forehead ruined my entire hunt and then did not heal for a long time. It's good that the blow didn't hit the eye!

The bittern feeds on animal food, mainly fish. Eats frogs, destroys many mice, large aquatic and terrestrial insects. She makes a nest in reeds or sedge, near the water, and lays 3-5 bluish eggs there. The age of the chicks varies, since incubation begins when the first egg is laid.

The bittern has a very quarrelsome and angry disposition. She loves solitude and does not recognize the company of her own kind. Few can boast of her affection. Taken into captivity even as a chick, the bittern rarely becomes submissive and is difficult to tame. On occasion, the bittern always tries to strike with its faceted, sharp beak.

Once in a swamp, among dense thickets of reed grass, we discovered a bittern nest, located on a spacious hummock and made of stems of dry, hard reeds. The nest resembled an old broken basket. There were four already feathered chicks of different ages sitting in it - bony, clumsy, with awkwardly large legs, they were very ugly. Seeing us, the chicks, as if on command, widened their piercing, unblinking eyes and, pointing their beaks upward, began to utter low gurgling croaks and hisses in unison. This defensive reaction meant - don’t touch it, otherwise things will get worse!

Still, we took one freak home and began to feed and water him. But, despite all our efforts and tricks, the yellow-throated warbler kept running wild and was irreconcilable all the time. He never took food from his hands and constantly hid in the dark corners of the room. When a person approached, he invariably hunched over, rolled his eyes, raised his beak up and made such a grimace that it became unpleasant and creepy.

As the sun set, the tree stump came to life. If there was no unnecessary movement or noise, he crawled out of his corner and, threateningly stretching his head forward and sticking out his beak - in a state of combat readiness - quietly walked around the room. Then he fussed around near the jar of food, swallowing fry, frogs, mice and all sorts of things. Everything we left for him.

In the fall, when the chick grew up and became a fully grown bird, he was seen less and less often and became completely sad. Even less friendly, the young bittern began to glance at us, declaring a formal hunger strike. We began to fear that her protest could end sadly, and decided to release the bird. In the evening, they took our pet out into the wild - he shook his red clothes, flapped his wings and, blowing the wind over our faces, disappeared into the darkness. The farewell “kau” sounded in the night sky.

Another one lives in the meadows of the Amur region bittern- Amur top. The same bony, awkward, only smaller in size and darker plumage.

The bittern's plumage perfectly imitates marsh reeds in terms of color - thanks to this coloring, the bird seems to dissolve against the background of coastal vegetation. Report with video and photos

Squad - Storks

Family - Herons

Genus/Species - Botaurus stellaris

Basic data:

DIMENSIONS

Height: 70-80 cm.

Wingspan: 125-130 cm.

REPRODUCTION

Nesting period: May July.

Number of eggs: 4-6 brown or olive eggs.

Incubation: 25 days.

Feeding chicks: 2 months.

LIFESTYLE

Habits: loner.

Food: insects, worms, leeches, frogs, fish, chicks and small mammals.

RELATED SPECIES

The genus includes 4 species of bulls, common in Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America.

Bittern. Video (00:01:04)

The bittern bird belongs to the same family as. A characteristic feature of male bitterns is their mating song, which resembles the roar of a bull. Nowadays, bitterns are becoming less and less common in their usual habitats, since reed thickets are destroyed by farmers for economic purposes.

REPRODUCTION

The mass arrival of large bitterns to nesting sites, depending on latitude, occurs in March - May. At the beginning of the nesting period, male bitterns announce their presence with loud, sonorous calls. The male tries to “charm” the females with his cry. Sometimes he travels through the swamp in search of a female. As soon as any male crosses the territorial boundaries of another male bittern, a fierce fight immediately arises between them. Females make nests on hummocks among reeds. She lays 4-6 eggs. The eggs are incubated by the female alone; the male only occasionally changes her in the nest.

Chicks in a bittern nest of different ages. Parents raise them together. Bittern chicks emerge from the nest at the age of 2-3 weeks. They hide in the reeds, and their parents, as before, bring them food. Young birds begin to fly at the age of eight weeks. At this time they become independent, so families break up. Until the start of the next nesting period, the birds lead a solitary lifestyle.

WHERE DOES IT LIVE?

The bittern lives in Europe and Central Asia. Its place of residence is high and dense reed thickets. This bird leads a secretive lifestyle. Quite often, a bittern lives very close to a person on a lake or swamp, where people come, but no one even suspects the existence of such a neighbor. Having settled in the reeds that grow in shallow water around lakes and along swampy river banks, the bittern finds here a sufficient amount of food and easily hides from enemies.

In winter, the reed dries out, and its stems and leaves settle to the bottom of the reservoir. Extremely fertile soil is formed from plant sediments, so European and Asian farmers in many places cut down reed thickets and drain the soil. These areas are then repurposed as agricultural land. Such actions lead to a decrease in the number of animals living in reed beds. In Great Britain, bitterns disappeared at the end of the 19th century. Individual birds began to appear again in England and build nests here only in 1911. The future fate of the bittern depends on whether people can preserve its places of residence.

WHAT DOES IT EAT?

The bittern is not picky in its choice of food and eats any prey it catches: from mayfly larvae to small rodents, such as water rats. Like other herons, it is a good fisherman. The bittern is nocturnal. At night, the bird tirelessly wanders through the swamp and energetically hunts all the time. It looks something like this: he takes a few steps and stops, peering in front of him. Then comes a lightning-fast attack - and the prey disappears into the beak. The bittern eats frogs with pleasure, but its favorite delicacies are slippery eels, which it easily deals with with the help of its sharp beak. Sometimes this bird steals eggs and chicks from the nests of waterfowl. Even during a hunt, the bittern does not lose vigilance for a minute - in case of danger, it immediately hides in the reed thickets or takes off. In cold regions, with the arrival of winter, hard times come for the bittern, as the water becomes covered with an ice crust, and the bird cannot hunt. Most bitterns leave the central European regions and fly south. To escape the winter, birds from Central Europe fly south.

BITTERN OBSERVATIONS

The bittern is rare in nature. These birds live in dense thickets of reeds and reeds along the banks of reservoirs. The bittern wanders among the stems or climbs up them. Noticing danger, the bird instinctively freezes in place, stretches its neck forward and becomes like some kind of twig or stick. Only during the nesting period do birds seem to forget about the danger. At this time, loud cries of males can be heard. These are rather unmelodic sounds, which is why people often call the bird a water bull. The bittern flies in a straight line, slowly flapping its wings. Fishermen sailing in a boat notice the bittern bird only when it has almost disappeared into the coastal thickets.

• The female bittern fiercely defends the nest. Protecting her chicks from a predator, she does not give in even to the attack of a reed harrier larger than herself.
• Since the beginning of the 18th century, people have hunted bittern birds for meat.
• Bitterns and herons have many similarities, so some ornithologists do not classify them as a separate subfamily. Between herons and bitterns there are intermediate forms.
• Bitterns usually lead a solitary lifestyle, but during the mating season you can observe group dances of males, which are accompanied by a loud and strangled cry of “o-trum”.
• Newborn bittern chicks make gurgling sounds similar to the gurgle of water (which is caused by blowing air through a straw).

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF BITTERN

Flight: in flight, the wide, rounded wings of the bittern are visible. The bird often flies from place to place in the reed thickets. The quiet soaring flight of the bittern resembles the flight of an owl.

Eyes: planted at the base of the beak. Raising its head, the bittern covers a wide space with its gaze and notices its prey.

Carrying: 4-6 brown or olive eggs. The bird's nest is built from reeds and reeds.

Plumage: colored to match the color of reed stems with longitudinal dark brown stripes. It camouflages the bird perfectly. Sensing danger, the bittern freezes, raising its head up, while its beak sticks out vertically. It can be easily pulled out by a twig or bird. In the wind, the bird sways along with the reeds.

- Habitat of the bittern bird

WHERE DOES IT LIVE?

The bittern is distributed over most of Eurasia; in the east its range is limited to Manchuria. The bittern population also lives in Southeast Africa.

PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

Bitterns are listed as an endangered species. Due to the draining of marshes in Western Europe, the local bittern population is in danger of extinction.

Sounds of nature. Birdsong - Great Bittern - Bird sounds. Listen. Video (00:00:41)

Sounds of nature. Great Bittern - Beautiful birdsong - Voices of birds.
Our channel: "Development"
Represents the "Sounds of Nature" section and the "Birdsong" collection. Find out how the Great Bittern sings and what sounds it makes! Educational video for adults and children.
Category "Sounds of Nature" Collection "Birdsong" - Contains the voices of 97 birds in separate videos.
Look at the world broadly with us! Study the sounds of nature to get closer to it.
Tags: Sounds of nature, Birds singing, Great Bittern, birdsong, singing, birds, birds, bird voices, voices, sounds of nature,

Bittern bird. Video (00:02:53)

In the cold winter of 2010 all shallow ti a small tonw Vilkovo freeze... many piscivorous birds were left without food ...
Near the central office of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve found weaken heron - Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) ... she sat in the snow and almost did not move ... We took it to our home to fatten and to cherish it... After feeding the bird quickly recreated .. a few days after when it was smthn like 0 degree of centigrade we"ve free it ...

The bittern is a wading bird. Video (00:00:14)

Small bittern. Brateevograd. Video (00:00:36)

The Little Bittern (Volchok) nests in the Brateevskaya floodplain, on the Maryinsky bank of the Moscow River.
Migratory view of Moscow. Rare bird.
Observed in late summer near its nesting sites in the bed of the Plintovka River.

Thai bittern. Video (00:01:33)

A wounded bird fell into our yard. Need some good care advice. How to properly exit a Red Book bird.

Meeting a great bittern means hitting a substantial jackpot. Thank God, the little bitterns literally stagger under our feet, so it’s a sin not to photograph them.

In total, on the canal (1.5 kilometers long with a break for the village) I counted three pairs of bitterns. Maybe more, but hardly more than a couple more. Otherwise it will be a bit cramped for them. One of the pairs of little bitterns has been nesting in this place (to within a meter!!) for several years now and gets caught in my lenses every year.

To photograph a bittern, there is only one piece of advice - do not twitch with any part of your body, and especially with the lens tube. If you do all the movements very smoothly and without looking the bird in the eyes, then you can perform a striptease in front of it twice with dressing and exercises on a pole. But the first and most important thing in photographing a little bittern is to SEE it in the thick reeds. Except, of course, in these cases:

1. Although some manage not to notice the bittern standing like that. To compare the size of the bird in hunting and alarming stances, I merged two frames into one:

As they say, feel the difference!

2. So, as I shoot from a car, then, having approached the reservoir a little further than the shooting distance, I first look at the middle and upper parts of the reed stems. Sometimes bitterns sit there, observing the situation. Then I drive up as close to the water as possible and look around carefully, slowly (!!) moving along the shore. The bittern hunts at the very edge of the water relative to the reeds, sometimes even sinking the stems with its own weight. Most often, she “holds” a reed in each paw, less often she sits on one stem with both paws.

If there are separately growing reeds not far (one and a half to two meters) from the main thicket, then there is a very high probability that the bird will sooner or later use them for hunting. There the view is wider and there are more animals. Patience is your main ally.

The bittern is capable of sitting completely motionless (barely moving only its eyes) for hours, the mimicry properties of its plumage are simply amazing and seeing the bird among the interweaving of reed stems is not easy, and for an inexperienced eye it is almost impossible. But over time, you will notice it from a hundred meters away. Like me (modestly)

4. Notice how the bittern holds its paws while hunting:

8. This one was scared away by a cyclist-milker who drove past the car. I didn’t even see him, but the bittern - yes:

And one more piece of advice: if you find a “drinking” place, then don’t look for even greater happiness for yourself. One way or another, sooner or later, the bird will definitely appear on its lands to hunt, especially during the period of feeding the chicks. Wait and you will be rewarded!

10. The acrobatic abilities and hunting skills of the little bittern are simply amazing. In addition to tadpoles, frogs, and fish, the bittern does not disdain dragonflies of all sizes, catching them in flight. Most often, female nurses are found. I saw the male only a couple of times. And not for hunting, but looking out for his buddies before football.

21. He is late for the market.

23. But this is another female, from a different section of the canal.

24. And this is the third one, I filmed it at the very end of the pond.

26. And suddenly the bird stood in a danger stance. It was behind me that rural women were returning from milking their husbands’ cows.

27. But the people passed, and the bittern continued to be on guard, even turning in the other direction, clearly watching someone with its red eye.

29. Here he is, the adversary! I sneaked up to the bittern, but did not take into account the presence of its telescopic neck. The bittern flew to the other side of the pond, and the cat, as they say, washed itself.