Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/ardea-bird

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Great-billed heron

Species of bird

Summary

Species of bird

The great-billed heron (Ardea sumatrana) is a wading bird of the heron family, resident from southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Description

The great-billed heron is a large bird, typically standing 115 cm tall and weighing up to 2.6 kg. It resembles the purple heron in appearance, although it is larger and darker. The plumage is largely dark grey above. In flight, it has a uniform dark grey upperwing.

The flight is slow, with its neck retracted. This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes and spoonbills, which extend their necks. The species feeds in shallow water, spearing fish with its long, sharp bill. It will wait motionless for prey, or slowly stalk its victim.

Subspecies

Great-billed heron is polytypic, meaning that it has more than one subspecies. The two subspecies are most easily distinguished by their different locations:

  • Ardea sumatrana mathewsae is found on the coasts of tropical northern Australia
  • Ardea sumatrana sumatrana is found on the coasts of southeastern Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, and New Guinea

Great-billed heron (Ardea sumatrana sumatrana) Danum Valley.jpg|A. s. sumatrana, Borneo Ardea sumatrana - Daintree River.jpg|Juvenile A. s. mathewsae, Daintree

Distribution and habitat

The great-billed heron has a very large range, occurring in much of coastal Southern Asia and Australasia including Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Its habitats are largely coastal such as islands, coral reefs, mangroves, large rivers. However, occasionally, it can be found inland in shallow ponds.

It is considered to be native in Queensland, Australia.

References

References

  1. BirdLife International. (2016). "''Ardea sumatrana''".
  2. McKilligan, Neil. (2005). "Herons, Egrets and Bitterns: Their Biology and Conservation in Australia". CSIRO Publishing.
  3. https://hanzab.birdlife.org.au/species/great-billed-heron/
  4. "Ardea sumatrana (Mathewsae) (Great-billed Heron (Syn. Mathewsae)) - Avibase".
  5. "Ardea sumatrana (Sumatrana) (Great-billed Heron (Syn. Sumatrana)) - Avibase".
  6. "Species profile—Ardea sumatrana (great-billed heron)". Queensland Government.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ardea-(bird) birds-of-new-guinea birds-of-the-northern-territory birds-of-cape-york-peninsula birds-of-southeast-asia birds-described-in-1822 birds-of-queensland
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Great-billed heron — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report