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Little 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 adult plumage.

The Little Heron has been given species status and is no longer considered to be conspecific with the Green Heron ("Butorides virescens") found in North America or the Striated Heron ("Butorides striata") of South America.

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 Little Heron is available HERE .

There are about 20 races of Little Herons, which are a sedentary species of small herons found in tropical and subtropical wetlands of Europe, Africa, Arabia, the Indian subcontinent, Asia, Oceania, and Australia.

In Oman, Little 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.

Races "macrorhyncha" and "stagnatilis" were found by us in Australia.

As their alternative name already suggests, they favour mangrove swamps and tidal flats as their habitat.

Race "brevipes"

Race "macrorhyncha"

Race "stagnatilis"