Malayan night heron

The Malayan night heron has been found in India, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. It is a vagrant in Palau and Korea. This bird occurs in forests, streams, and marshes. == Description ==

The Malayan night heron is about long. The crown is black, the chin is white, and the eyes are yellow. The beak is black and the legs are greenish. The juvenile is greyish to rufous and is spotted and vermiculated. Males have been reported to have deeper blue lores and a longer crest compared to females during the breeding season. Males develop the dark blue lores 30–60 days prior to pair-bonding, while females had bluish-green lores when they first appeared in the breeding areas. Colours of the lores of both sexes faded as incubation progressed, with colours changing to bluish-green to green to greyish-green. If pairs laid a second clutch, the colouration of their lores were duller than the colouration during the first clutch. == Biology ==

The Malayan night heron is usually solitary. It roosts in trees and feeds in open areas. Of six breeding pairs observed in Taiwan, four were immature-adult pairs suggesting that the species in Taiwan has few breeding adults. Birds in immature plumage appeared to be sexually mature Pellets of breeding birds in Korea had earthworms, snails and cicadas. An instance of predation of the Brown Anole Anolis sagrei has been observed. == Conservation ==

The bird has a large range and its global population is between 2,000 and 20,000 individuals. Its population trend is not known, but it does not meet the criteria for a vulnerable species status. == References ==