Black-backed Bittern (Ixobrychus dubius)
About the Black-backed Bittern
The black-backed bittern (Botaurus dubius), also known as the black-backed least bittern or Australian little bittern, is a little-known species of heron in the family Ardeidae found in Australia and vagrant to southern New Guinea. Formerly lumped with the little bittern, it is one of the smallest herons in the world. This species was formerly placed in the genus Ixobrychus. The bittern has sometimes been regarded as a subspecies of the little bittern (Botaurus minutus), or of the New Zealand bittern (Botaurus novaezelandiae). However, molecular evidence has shown it to be more closely related to the yellow bittern (Botaurus sinensis) than to the African and Palaearctic forms of the little bittern, and it is now recognised as a full species.
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 9 recordings for this species: 8 CC BY-NC-SA · 1 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Australia in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Least BitternIxobrychus exilisrecording
- Little BitternIxobrychus minutusrecording
- Yellow BitternIxobrychus sinensisrecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.