Thursday, 11 December 2014

White Bellied Heron

WHITE BELLIED HERON


The white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis), also known as the imperial heron or great white-bellied heron, is a species of large heron found in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in India, northeastern Bangladesh, Burma and Bhutan.

 This large heron is plain dark grey above with a long neck. The crown is dark and there are no black stripes on the neck as in the grey heron.

 In breeding plumage, it has a greyish-white nape plume and elongated grey breast feathers with white centers.

The major threats the heron faces are poaching (both the bird itself and its eggs) and habitat destruction (the cutting of nesting trees and the disappearance of wetlands).

This species is rarer than previously believed. Indeed, it appears close to extinction. It has therefore been up listed from Endangered to Critically Endangered status in the 2007 IUCN Red List.

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