The yellow bittern (Botaurus sinensis) is a small bittern of Old World origins that breeds in the northern Indian subcontinent, east to the Russian Far East, Japan, and Indonesia. It is mainly a resident bird, but some northern birds migrate short distances. It has been recorded as a vagrant in Alaska.
Taxonomy
The yellow bittern was formally described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Systema Naturae. He placed it with the herons, cranes, storks, and bitterns in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea sinensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Chinese heron" that had been included by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham based his description on a collection of Chinese drawings. The yellow bittern was formerly placed in the genus Ixobrychus. A molecular phylogenetic study of the heron family Ardeidae published in 2023 found that Ixobrychus was paraphyletic, and to create monophyletic genera, Ixobrychus was merged into the genus Botaurus that had been introduced in 1819 by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens. The genus name Botaurus is Medieval Latin for a bittern. The specific epithet sinensis is Modern Latin meaning "China". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. It has yellow green legs, an ivory bill (darker on top), a short black tail, and yellow irises. The male of the species has a dark cap, chestnut head and neck, with a uniformly dull yellow body above and buff below. The female's cap, neck, and breast are streaked, with a rufous hindneck and upper back and streaked dark red brown and buff under parts.
Distribution and habitat
right|thumb|Egg, Collection [[Museum Wiesbaden]]
The yellow bittern lives in freshwater marshes and swamps. It feeds on a variety of insects, fish, amphibians, crustaceans and molluscs.
Gallery
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File:Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) at Chiba JPN.jpg|1）Parent locates child birds without chirp (Chiba pref. Japan)
File:Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) child bird at Chia JPN.jpg|2）Child birds notice parent then exit from thicket
File:Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) feeds to child bird at Chiba JPN.jpg|3）Feeding to child birds
</gallery>