Rufescent Tiger-Heron
Tigrisoma lineatum
This medium-sized heron is found around swamps, marshes, and sluggish streams at lower elevations. Usually seen singly. Adults are distinctive with their bright rufous head and neck. Juveniles are buffy with uneven black barring. Juveniles essentially identical to juvenile Fasciated Tiger-Heron, but note different habitat.
Identification
The rufescent tiger heron is a medium-sized heron, measuring 26–30 in (66–76 cm) in length, with a mass between 630 and 980 g (22 and 35 oz). The sexes are similarly plumaged. The adult's head, neck and chest are dark rufous, with a white stripe down the center of the foreneck. The remainder of its upperparts are brownish with fine black vermiculations, its belly and vent are buffy-brown, and its flanks are barred black and white. Its tail is black, narrowly barred with white. Its stout bill is yellowish to dusky, and its legs are dull green. Its irides, loral skin, and orbital ring are bright yellow. Unlike other tiger herons, it has no powder down feathers on its back.<p>The juvenile bird is rusty-buff overall, coarsely barred with black; the buff and black banding on its wings is especially pronounced. Its throat, central chest, and belly are white. It takes some five years to acquire adult plumage.<p>The adult rufescent tiger heron is relatively easy to distinguish from fasciated and bare-throated tiger herons, as it is rufous (rather than primarily gray) on the head and neck. Young birds, however, are much more difficult to identify.
Taxonomy
The rufescent tiger heron was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Ardea lineata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The rufescent tiger heron is now placed in the genus Tigrisoma that was erected by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The genus name Tigrisoma combines the Ancient Greek tigris, meaning "tiger" and somā, meaning "body"; the specific epithet lineatum is from the Latin lineatus meaning "marked with lines".<p>Two subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Tigrisoma lineatum
- Authority
- (Boddaert, 1783)
- Order
- Pelecaniformes
- Family
- Ardeidae
- Genus
- Tigrisoma
Range and habitat
The rufescent tiger heron is found in wetlands from Central America through much of South America. It generally occurs below 500 m (1,600 ft), though it has been recorded as high as 1,600 m (5,200 ft) in Colombia.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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