Striated Herons are small herons with a grey back and a brownish,
striated front. Their cap is black, with a black nuchal crest. The eyes are
strikingly yellow. The bill is dark-grey. The legs have a
greyish-yellow front side and yellow back side.
Juveniles
have a highly cryptic
dark-brown plumage
with lighter brown striation that gradually changes into
adultplumage.
The Striated Heron is no longer considered to be conspecific
with the Green Heron ("Butorides virescens") found in North
America.
Range, habitat
Click here for information on habitat
and range
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and
specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found,
based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
.
The global distribution of the Striated Heron is available
HERE
.
There are at least 3 races of Striated Herons, which are a sedentary
species of small herons found in tropical and subtropical wetlands of
Europe, Africa,
Arabia,
the Indian subcontinent, Asia, Oceania,
Australia
and South America.
In Oman, Striated Herons, race "brevipes"(?), can be
found along the northern coastline, from near Ras Al-Hadd to well
into the UAE, and on the far-southern Oman coast. Apart from the
Persian Gulf, they are also found along other parts of Arabia,
most notably the Red Sea coastline of Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
The only breeding colony is found in mangrove in the southern
Sinai peninsula.
More Striated Heron sound recordings are available at
xeno-canto.org
.
These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our
contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species
please refer to a field guide.