chinese pond heron

Chinese Pond-heron male, during breeding season, has slaty-black mantle and scapulars. Head, neck and breast are dark wine-brown with a slaty patch in lower breast. It has white wings and belly. In summer, legs and feet are pinkish. Bill is yellow with black tip, pale blue on the base of the upper mandible, and yellow lores. Eyes are yellow too. Female is paler than male on the nape, and lacks the grey patch on the breast. She also has shorter feathers. Adult male winter has dark brown mantle and scapulars, white wings and belly, and whitish head, nape and breast, heavily streaked with dark brown. Chin and throat are white. In winter, legs and feet are yellow. Bill is yellow on the lower mandible, yellowish-grey on the upper mandible, black tip and pale yellow lores. Eyes are yellow. Juvenile has brown plumage, streaked with buff and darker brown. Underparts are whitish streaked brown.

Chinese Pond-heron lives in wetlands, in shallow water, fresh or salt water, and also in ponds, flooded fields and mangroves.

Chinese Pond-heron feeds on terrestrial insects, fishes and crabs, but it also consumes small amphibians, worms and aquatic invertebrates. According to the region, it feeds during the day, but mainly at dawn and dusk.

Presumably like that of Indian Pond.
Chinese Pond-heron is rather silent. It utters a call in flight, at dusk or when flushes. It is a hard "croak".

The Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) is an East Asian freshwater bird of the heron family (Ardeidae). Chinese Pond-heron is sedentary in India with only local dispersion. North populations are migratory. Chinese Pond-heron feeds by walking on the shore or standing motionless. It may forage as well during the day or at night. It is active at sunset and sunrise. It is a solitary bird sometimes seen in pairs or in small groups of 5-6 individuals.  It is one of six species of birds known as "pond herons" (genus Ardeola). It is parapatric (or nearly so) with the Indian pond heron (A. grayii) to the west and the Javan pond heron (A. speciosa) to the south and these three are presumed to form a superspecies. As a group they are variously affiliated with the squacco heron (A. ralloides) or the Malagasy pond heron (A. idae). As of mid-2011 there are no published molecular analyses of pond heron interrelationships and osteological data is likewise not analyzed for all relevant comparison taxa. The Chinese pond heron is typically 47 cm (19 in) long with white wings a yellow bill with a black tip yellow eyes and legs. Its overall colour is red blue and white during breeding season and greyish-brown and flecked with white at other times. It is found in shallow fresh and salt water wetlands and ponds in China and adjacent temperate and subtropical East Asia. Essentially a lowland bird its range is delimited by the subarctic regions in the north and by the mountain ranges in the west and south. The species is prone to some vagrancy. One individual in breeding plumage was seen by the river at Bonzon near Gangaw &ndash just inside the Chin State of Burma &ndash west of the species' usual range on April 8 1995. A stray bird stopping over on Saint Paul Island Alaska on August 4&ndash9 1997 was the first recorded occurrence of this species in North America. Its food consists of insects fish and crustaceans. The Chinese pond heron often nests in mixed-species heronries. It lays a clutch of 3&ndash6 blue-green eggs. It is fairly common and not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.