Little Heron

Little Heron is a small heron, about 44 cm tall. It is mostly sedentary and frequents both fresh and salt water habitats. The little heron was formerly considered to be conspecific with the striated heron. 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. (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its recorded distribution includes the Old World tropics from west Africa to Japan and Australia. A molecular phylogenetic study of the genus Butorides, submitted in 2023 as a master's thesis, found that the striated heron was paraphyletic. The species is found in the Old World tropics from Sub-Saharan Africa to Japan and south to Australia. Habitats used include both fresh water and salt water habitats, typically in mangroves but is also found in vegetation along rivers and streams. (Wikipedia, general species account).