Chinese Pond Heron
Ardeola bacchus
Family Ardeidae
Length 18" Wingspan 33
Rare
Bird # 249 - April 2010
This bird is a rare migrant. It is about 18". According to the Kennedy guide, there have been only 3 records of it in the Philippines. It is also described as silent, shy and solitary and preferring to feed at twilight.
Tonji spotted this bird in the late afternoon in one of the canals. It got spooked when a gardener walked towards it. We tried looking for it the following day but did not see it again.
CHINESE POND HERON Ardeola bacchus Batan, Batanes, Philippines We saw this bird in the island of Batan. We think we can id this bird as a Chinese Pond Heron even if its not in breeding plumage because of the dusky wing tips that are visible in the in-flight shots. We are basing this on A Field Guide to the Birds of South-east Asia by Craig Robson where he says the Chinese Pond Heron in non-breeding is "often with dusky tips to primaries" and "possibly indistinguishable from other pond-herons but may tend to show more obvious dusky tips to outermost primaries than Javan". We are presuming that it is a Chinese Pond Heron based on the distribution. But most of the experts would probably be more comfortable if we called this bird a Pond Heron species since it is not in breeding plumage.
chinesepondCHINESE POND HERONArdeola bacchusBatanBatanesPhilippinesTonji RamosSylvia RamosTonji and SylviaTonjiSylviabird
