Least Bittern females and juveniles are mostly pale and soft brown in color (like the Bittern featured here), while males have dark green crown and back feathers (All About Birds). This female Bittern was having quite a productive little fishing expedition one recent morning!
Although we often see obvious size and/or color differences in male versus female birds, at other times, the bird’s sex can difficult or impossible to distinguish – this is known as monomorphism (Word of the Week at High Park Nature Center 😉).
Birder's Journey 
So amazing bird’s photos 🌷🙏👍🏻first time seeing this colour bird 😍🖖thank you for sharing 👏😊
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She’s a little beauty! Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful day!
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Yes, so true 👍🏻😍you are most welcome 🌷🙏♥️🌷
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My curiosity is always piqued when I know your post is on bitterns👍🐟
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Love these birds… the diminutive Least Bittern and the big American Bittern. ☺️
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Beautiful shots- I especially like the vantage point from above which you don’t often see in bird images.
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Thank you, Jane! Interestingly, this Least Bittern had a nest in one of the large plants just below the boardwalk, and when she walked out to go fishing, this was just about the only angle to get a shot!
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Very nice photographs of a bird usually very secretive!
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Yes. It’s always so special to catch a glimpse of one, and this one was having such success fishing, that she stayed in view for quite a while. ☺️
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That’s a cool sighting!!
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I was so lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The bittern just decided to come out of its hidden nesting area as I arrived.
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😀 I know how exciting that must have been!
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Thank you – I didn’t know about the color differences. Very nice photos!
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Thanks so much! Cornell’s All about Birds website is a wealth of information, including showing images of similar birds and birds at different stages of their development. Here’s an example: https://ebird.org/species/leabit
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One of the great stealthy birds 😁😁. Well captured. 👍
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Thanks very much, Ted I love these little Bitterns, and they are really good at hiding.
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I’ve never seen one so nice to see your images, Carol.
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I hope you get the chance to see one foraging around in a marsh one day, Steve!
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Lovely captures BJ ! Thanks for introducing me to one of your Bitterns my friend. They are very elusive birds as we both know, and you have cone well to capture this one with food in beak.
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Thanks, AB. She was busy fishing for a long time, but I was lucky to click the shutter at exactly the moment she held this fish before swallowing it. 😊
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Wow! Excellent photography, Carol. You must have been right on top from the wood trail. 🙂
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Thanks, HJ. Exactly! The Bittern was literally right below and I had to lean over the boardwalk railing ☺️
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Amazing how far that neck can stretch!
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Lol, yes, isn’t it remarkable!? They look entirely different depending upon their ‘posture’ 😊
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It’s amazing you were able to get so many good photos of this shy bird. I have only heard one once in my life, and have never seen one.
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We’re very lucky to have these lovely little Bitterns around quite a bit.
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What an different angle the boardwalk provided. It looks like the bittern caught its prey by impaling it on the end of the sharp beak? It must be an interesting maneuver to get it from there to being grasped in the bill!
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I was literally leaning over the boardwalk railing looking straight down to take the shots, Carol! Yes, it’s fascinating how some of our herons and water birds manage a speared fish. I think they have a remarkable ability to quickly toss the fish up in the air, tilt their head back, and open their beak wide, to swallow it.
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It is remarkable!
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Then in the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan we can say of the bittern: It is the very model of a modest migrant monomorph.
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Very clever alliteration ☺️. The only flaw here is that Least Bitterns are one of the species that are NOT monomorphs – the males have darker coloring.
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And look at the etymology of bittern:
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=bittern
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Thanks! Interesting!! The Latin name for the Least Bittern is Ixobrychus exilis (https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/leabit/1.0/introduction), but they are related to our larger American Bittern, Botaurus lentiginosus.
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A great set of pictures – love the one with the outstretched neck and then the one with the fish. 🙂
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Thank you so much for your visit, Ann! I also like those images in particular ☺️
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