Mystery Bird: American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus

tags: American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz

Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.

Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:

How much of a bird do you need to see to identify it? Depends: on the species, the time of year, the circumstances. But you'll find that as you look at more and more birds, you need on average less and less to identify them.

Let's figure out what we're seeing in this mysterious mystery photo. The bird appears to be perching in grass at the edge of what looks like water -- an important clue itself -- and facing to our right. We can see a cryptically mottled wing and a richly marked chestnut and black back, all rather owl-like. At the bend of the wing there seems to be a diffuse whitish patch on the side of the breast.

The breast and neck, or what we can see of them at least, are heavily and strikingly striped brown. The only North American owl I can think of that fits that pattern is Barred Owl. But that bird is cold gray above, with heavy white spotting on the scapulars, and not, in my experience, much given to patrolling the grassy edges of marshes from a perch on the ground.

So what big brown bird is? My guess is that many of us will either have recognized this image right away or still be scratching our heads. If the picture made you think immediately of a bittern, you got it right; if it didn't, you're probably still wondering.

Which bittern? Only American Bittern combines the relatively uniform coloration of the upperparts with such bold striping of the neck. The darkish flight feathers useful in identifying the species in the air are concealed here by the owl-like wing coverts, but I wonder whether that white patch at the bend of the wing isn't the bird's nuptial plumes, displayed in a dramatic show each spring on the prairie marshes this declining species loves so much.

Review all mystery birds to date.