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Ardea (genus)
Encyclopedia
- "Megalornis" redirects here. This name was also (invalidly) given to the pseudotooth bird genus DasornisDasornisDasornis is a genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks, or of waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty....
by Harry Govier Seeley and proposed (but not adopted) for the moaMoaThe moa were eleven species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand. The two largest species, Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae, reached about in height with neck outstretched, and weighed about ....
genus Dinornis by Richard OwenRichard OwenSir Richard Owen, FRS KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
.
Ardea is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s. Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
named this genus as the Great Herons, referring to the generally large size of these bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, typically 80–100 cm or more in length.
These large herons are associated with wetlands where they prey on fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s, and other aquatic species.
Most members of this almost worldwide group breed colonially
Bird colony
A bird colony is a large congregation of individuals of one or more species of bird that nest or roost in close proximity at a particular location. Many kinds of birds are known to congregate in groups of varying size; a congregation of nesting birds is called a breeding colony...
in trees, building large stick nests. Northern species such as Great Blue
Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...
, Grey
Grey Heron
The Grey Heron , is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in the milder south and west, but many birds retreat in winter from the ice in colder regions...
and Purple Heron
Purple Heron
The Purple Heron is a wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, breeding in Africa, central and southern Europe, and southern and eastern Asia. The European populations are migratory, wintering in tropical Africa; the more northerly Asian populations also migrate further south within Asia...
s may migrate
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
south in winter, although the first two do so only from areas where the waters freeze.
These are powerful birds with large spear-like bills, long necks and long legs, which hunt by waiting motionless or stalking their prey in shallow water before seizing it with a sudden lunge. They have a slow steady flight, with the neck retracted as is characteristic of herons and bittern
Bittern
Bitterns are a classification of birds in the heron family, Ardeidae, a family of wading birds. Species named bitterns tend to be the shorter-necked, often more secretive members of this family...
s; this distinguishes them from stork
Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae. They are the only family in the biological order Ciconiiformes, which was once much larger and held a number of families....
s, crane
Crane (bird)
Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
s, and spoonbill
Spoonbill
Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.All have large, flat, spatulate bills and feed by wading through shallow water, sweeping the partly opened bill from side to side...
s, which extend their necks.
Taxonomy
Some members of Ardea are clearly very closely related, such as the Grey, Great Blue, and Cocoi HeronCocoi Heron
The Cocoi Heron is a species of heron in the Ardeidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is a non-breeding visitor to Trinidad and Tobago and a vagrant to the Falkland...
s, which form a superspecies
Superspecies
A superspecies is a group of at least two more or less distinctive species with approximately parapatric distributions. Not all species complexes, whether cryptices or ring species are superspecies, and vice versa, but many are...
. However, the Great Egret
Great Egret
The Great Egret , also known as the Great White Egret or Common Egret, White Heron, or Great White Heron, is a large, widely-distributed egret. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, in southern Europe it is rather localized...
, in particular, has been placed in other genera by various authors as Egretta alba and Casmerodius alba. Nevertheless, this species closely resembles the large Ardea herons in everything but colour, whereas it shows fewer similarities to the smaller white egret
Egret
An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...
s.
Species
- Great Blue HeronGreat Blue HeronThe Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...
, Ardea herodias - Grey HeronGrey HeronThe Grey Heron , is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in the milder south and west, but many birds retreat in winter from the ice in colder regions...
, Ardea cinerea - Goliath HeronGoliath HeronThe Goliath Heron is a very large wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller numbers in Southwest and South Asia.-Description:This is the world's largest heron...
, Ardea goliath - Cocoi HeronCocoi HeronThe Cocoi Heron is a species of heron in the Ardeidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is a non-breeding visitor to Trinidad and Tobago and a vagrant to the Falkland...
, Ardea cocoi - White-necked HeronWhite-necked HeronThe White-necked Heron, Ardea pacifica also known as the Pacific Heron is found throughout New Guinea and Australia, except for the most arid regions, and is a vagrant to New Zealand....
or Pacific Heron, Ardea pacifica - Black-headed HeronBlack-headed HeronThe Black-headed Heron is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, common throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. It is mainly resident but some west African birds move further north in the rainy season....
, Ardea melanocephala - Humblot's Heron, Ardea humbloti
- White-bellied HeronWhite-bellied HeronThe White-bellied Heron is a species of large heron found in the foothills of the eastern Himalayas in India, northeastern Bangladesh, Burma and Bhutan. Records in the past have been from Nepal. It is mostly all dark grey with white throat and underparts. This heron is mostly solitary and is found...
, Ardea insignis - Great-billed HeronGreat-billed HeronThe Great-billed Heron, Ardea sumatrana is a wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, resident from southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Australia. Its habitats are largely coastal such as islands, coral reefs, mangroves, large rivers. However, occasionally, it can be found inland in shallow...
, Ardea sumatrana - Purple HeronPurple HeronThe Purple Heron is a wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, breeding in Africa, central and southern Europe, and southern and eastern Asia. The European populations are migratory, wintering in tropical Africa; the more northerly Asian populations also migrate further south within Asia...
, Ardea purpurea - Great EgretGreat EgretThe Great Egret , also known as the Great White Egret or Common Egret, White Heron, or Great White Heron, is a large, widely-distributed egret. Distributed across most of the tropical and warmer temperate regions of the world, in southern Europe it is rather localized...
or Great White Egret, Ardea alba- Eastern Great EgretEastern Great EgretThe Eastern Great Egret is a white heron of the genus Ardea, is considered a subspecies of the Great Egret . Although a study argued for full species status in 2005, most taxonomists consider it to be a subspecies...
, Ardea alba modesta, considered subspecies of Ardea alba
- Eastern Great Egret
- Pied HeronPied HeronThe Pied Heron , also known as the Pied Egret is a bird found in coastal and subcoastal areas of monsoonal northern Australia as well as some parts of Wallacea and New Guinea.-Taxonomy:...
, Ardea picata, or Egretta
A number of Ardea species are only known from subfossil or fossil bones. Their placement in Ardea versus Egretta may be provisional:
- Bennu Heron, Ardea bennuides (prehistoricLate Quaternary prehistoric birdsPrehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...
) - Ardea sp. (Middle Miocene of Observation Quarry, USA) (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea sp. (Late Miocene of Love Bone Bed, USA) (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea polkensis (Early Pliocene of Bone Valley, USA) (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea sp. (Early Pleistocene of Macasphalt Shell Pit, USA) (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea formosa (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea howardae (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
) - Ardea similis (fossilFossilFossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
)
The remains described as Ardea perplexa are nowadays usually believed to be from an ibis
Ibis
The ibises are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae....
of the genus Geronticus
Geronticus
The small bird genus Geronticus belongs to the ibis subfamily . Its name is derived from the Greek gérontos in reference to the bald head of these dark-plumaged birds; in English they are called bald ibises.Geronticus contains two living species. The Northern Bald Ibis has a neck crest of...
or closely related thereto.