Black-backed Bittern

Botaurus dubius (Mathews, 1912)

Black-backed Bittern, Botaurus dubius, breeds patchily across south-eastern and south-western Australia and in scattered parts of New Guinea. It is a heron in the Ardeidae family and a very small bittern. The bird is tied to freshwater wetlands with thick reeds, sedges and flooded shrub cover, and it may also use brackish or salty wetland edges, including mangroves and salt marsh. In Australia it is most often recorded in the Murray-Darling Basin, along parts of the east coast, and in south-west Western Australia, with breeding also noted in New Caledonia.

Order

Pelecaniformes

Family

Ardeidae — Herons, Bitterns

Breeding range

Australasia: patchily in sc, nc, se New Guinea and far sw WA, ne WA to s VIC (sw, n, e Australia)