{{Short description|Species of bird}} {{Speciesbox | image = Green-backed Heron (Butorides striata) (13646356265).jpg | image_caption = Nominate subspecies, Kruger National Park, South Africa | status = NE | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = | genus = Butorides | species = atricapilla | authority = (Afzelius, 1804) | synonyms = *''Ardea atricapilla'' (protonym) * ''Ardea chloriceps'' {{small|Bonaparte, 1857}}<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://wwwops.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_028_07_0288_0288_0.pdf| title=A note on the correct zoological name of the Indian little green heron (Aves, Ardeidae)| author=Biswas, Biswamoy| year=1959| journal=Current Science| volume=28| issue=7| page=288| archive-date=2022-09-20| access-date=2025-03-28| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920171832/https://wwwops.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_028_07_0288_0288_0.pdf| url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> | range_map = File:Butorides atricapilla map.png | range_map_caption = Range of the little heron }}
The '''little heron''' ('''''Butorides atricapilla''''') is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. It is mostly sedentary and frequents both fresh and salt water habitats. It is found in the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia. The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron.
==Taxonomy== The little heron was formally described in 1804 by the Swedish naturalist Adam Afzelius based on a specimen collected in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He placed the new species with the herons in the genus ''Ardea'' and coined the binomial name ''Ardea atricapilla''.<ref>{{ cite journal | last=Afzelius | first=Adam | author-link=Adam Afzelius | date=1804 | title=''Ardea atricapilla'', en ny Fogel ifrån Serra Leone, dår funnen och beskrisven af Adam Afzelius | language=Swedish | journal=Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakademiens Handlingar | volume=25 | pages=264-268 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/46954097 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | location=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=221 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108861 }}</ref> The specific epithet is Latin meaning "black-haired".<ref>{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=atricapilla | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=atricapilla | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=19 March 2025 }}</ref> The little heron is now one of four species placed in the genus ''Butorides'' that was introduced in 1852 by the English zoologist Edward Blyth.
The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron (''Butorides striata''). A molecular phylogenetic study of the genus ''Butorides'', submitted in 2023 as a master's thesis, found that the striated heron was paraphyletic. To resolve the paraphyly, twenty subspecies of the striated heron were moved to a new species, the little heron, making the striated heron a monotypic species restricted to South America.<ref name=mendales>{{cite thesis | last=Mendales | first=Ezra Zachary | date=2023 | title=Ultraconserved elements resolve the phylogeny of a globally distributed genus, ''Butorides'' (Aves: Ardeidae) | degree=Masters | publisher=San Francisco State University | location=San Francisco, California | url=https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/wd3764014 | access-date=21 March 2025 }}</ref><ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=August 2024 | title=Ibis, spoonbills, herons, Hamerkop, Shoebill, pelicans | work=IOC World Bird List Version 14.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/pelicans/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=19 March 2025 }}</ref>
Twenty subspecies are recognised:<ref name=ioc/> * ''B. a. atricapilla'' (Afzelius, 1804) – Africa south of the Sahara * ''B. a. brevipes'' (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) – Somalia and the Red Sea coasts * ''B. a. crawfordi'' Nicoll, 1906 – Aldabra and Amirante groups (south, central Seychelles) * ''B. a. rhizophorae'' Salomonsen, 1934 – Comoros * ''B. a. rutenbergi'' (Hartlaub, 1880) – Madagascar and Réunion * ''B. a. degens'' Hartert, EJO, 1920 – northeast Seychelles * ''B. a. albolimbata'' Reichenow, 1900 – Chagos Archipelago and Maldives * ''B. a. amurensis'' (Schrenck, 1860) – southeast Siberia, northeast China and Japan * ''B. a. actophila'' Oberholser, 1912 – east China to north Myanmar and north Vietnam * ''B. a. javanica'' (Horsfield, 1821) – Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka to Thailand, Philippines, the Greater Sunda Islands and Sulawesi * ''B. a. spodiogaster'' Sharpe, 1894 – Andaman and Nicobar Islands and islands off west Sumatra * ''B. a. steini'' Mayr, 1943 – Lesser Sunda Islands * ''B. a. moluccarum'' Hartert, EJO, 1920 – Moluccas * ''B. a. papuensis'' Mayr, 1940 – northwest New Guinea * ''B. a. idenburgi'' Rand, 1941 – north New Guinea * ''B. a. flyensis'' Salomonsen, 1966 – central south, southeast New Guinea * ''B. a. stagnatilis'' (Gould, 1848) – coastal northwest, central north Australia * ''B. a. macrorhyncha'' (Gould, 1848) – east, northeast Australia and New Caledonia * ''B. a. solomonensis'' Mayr, 1940 – New Hanover Island to Solomon Islands (except Rennell Island), and Vanuatu to Fiji (southwest Polynesia) * ''B. a. patruelis'' (Peale, 1849) – Tahiti (Society Islands)
==Description== The little heron is {{cvt|35|-|48|cm}} in length, weighs {{cvt|130|-|250|g}} and has a wing-span of {{cvt|52|-|60|cm}}. The sexes are alike. The plumage is vary variable, even sometimes within the same subspecies.<ref name=hbw>{{ cite book | last1=Martínez-Vilalta | first1=A. | last2=Motis | first2=A. | year=1992 | chapter=Family Ardeida (Herons) | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | title=Handbook of the Cornel | volume=1: Ostrich to Ducks | location=Barcelona, Spain | publisher=Lynx Edicions | isbn=84-87334-10-5 | pages=376–429 [417] | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0001unse/page/417/mode/1up | chapter-url-access=registration }}</ref> Adults have a blue-grey back and wings, white underparts, a black cap, a dark line extends from the bill to under the eye and short yellow legs. Juveniles are browner above and streaked below. The two Australian subspecies ''B. a. macrorhyncha'' and ''B. a. stagnatilis'' are dimorphic, with grey and rufous morphs.<ref name=hbw/>
==Distribution and habitat== The little heron is found in the Old World tropics from Sub-Saharan Africa to Japan and south to Australia. It inhabits both fresh water and salt water habitats, typically in mangroves but is also found in vegetation along rivers and streams.<ref name=hbw/>
==Behaviour== [[File:Héron à dos vert MHNT.jpg|thumb|right| upright=0.8|Egg, Muséum de Toulouse]]
===Food and feeding=== These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects.<ref name=hbw/>
===Breeding=== The nest is hidden amongst shrubs or branches. The clutch of 2–5 eggs is incubated for 19-25 days. The chicks are covered with pale-grey down with white above. They fledge when they are around 5 weeks of age.<ref name=hbw/>
==Gallery== <gallery> Butorides striatus amurensis at kanonji.jpg|''B. a. amurensis'', Japan Green-backed heron (Butorides striata atricapilla) juvenile.jpg|juvenile ''B. a. atricapilla'', Ghana Striated heron (Butorides striata chloriceps).jpg|''B. a. javanica'', juvenile, India Little heron (Butorides atricapilla javanica) immature in flight Taal Lake.jpg|''B. a. javanica'', juvenile, Philippines Butorides striata javanica @ Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1).jpg|''B. a. javanica'', Malaysia Butorides striatus - Daintree River.jpg|''B. s. macrorhyncha'' on the Daintree River, North Queensland, Australia </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * Greenbacked heron ''Butorides striata'' – [http://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/074.pdf Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q132482576}}
little heron little heron Category:Birds of Africa Category:Birds of Asia Category:Birds of Oceania Category:Birds of the Gulf of Guinea little heron