Black Bittern

Black Bittern is a bittern of Old World origin, breeding in tropical Asia from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to China, Indonesia, and Australia. This species was formerly placed in the genus Ixobrychus. The black bittern was formally described in 1790 by the English ornithologist John Latham under the binomial name Ardea flavicollis. He used the English name "yellow-necked heron" and specified the type locality as India. (Wikipedia, general species account).

The black bittern was formerly placed in the genus Ixobrychus but when a molecular phylogenetic study of the heron family Ardeidae published in 2023 found that Ixobrychus was paraphyletic, Ixobrychus was merged into the genus Botaurus that had been introduced in 1819 by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens. They can be difficult to see, given their skulking lifestyle and reed bed habitat. They nest on platforms of reeds in shrubs, or sometimes in trees. (Wikipedia, general species account).