American Bittern Depredates Sora

Authors

Jane E. Austin, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research CenterFollow
Michael V. Slivinski, USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Date of this Version

3-2000

Comments

Published in The Prairie Naturalist 32(1): March 2000. Published by the Great Plains Natural Science Society.

Abstract

The American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) is an opportunistic predator that forages on a wide variety of foods, primarily insects, amphibians, fishes, snakes, and small mammals (reviewed in Gibbs et al. 1992). To our knowledge, there are no published reports documenting American bittern depredation on birds. We report observations of an American bittern attempting to consume a sora (Porzana carolina).