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Whistling Heron | Syrigma sibilatrix
Fluitreiger | Garza chiflona
The Whistling Heron is a medium-sized heron of open grasslands and wet savannas in South America, less tied to water than most herons. The name refers to its whistled call. In the region it is a rare vagrant, mainly to the ABC Islands off the coast of Venezuela.
Voice
A loud, whistled, slightly plaintive kleeer-er, often in flight and on take-off; also harsh alarm calls.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
53–64 cm, fairly compact, with a short neck and short legs. The upperparts are blue-grey, the head, neck and breast golden yellow to pale buff, and the belly white. The wing coverts are buff with dark streaks. The northern subspecies, the one nearest the region, has a slate-grey crown and crest; the southern one a black crown. Around the eye there is blue bare skin. The bill is pink with a bluish-violet base and a black tip, the legs greenish. In flight the white rump and tail stand out; the wingbeats are rapid and shallow.
Confusion species
The combination of blue-grey back, yellow neck and pink bill is shared by no other heron in the region. Western Cattle Egret Ardea ibis, which also feeds in pastures, is white, with orange-buff plumes in breeding plumage, and has a yellow bill. Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias is much larger and has a yellow bill.
Habitat
Open grassland, pastures, wet and flooded savanna, and the edges of ponds and ditches, often in country with scattered trees or copses in which it roosts. It hunts alone or in pairs for insects, frogs and other small animals, standing, walking slowly or making short dashes. It nests singly, not in colonies, in trees.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A rare vagrant to Aruba and Curaçao, with further records from Bonaire and Trinidad. Outside the region in two separate populations: in the llanos and Orinoco basin of Colombia and Venezuela, and from eastern Bolivia and Brazil to Paraguay, Uruguay and north-eastern Argentina.
How and when to look
Grassland, pastures and the edges of freshwater ponds on Aruba and Curaçao, where a bird may feed among Cattle Egrets. A standing bird is picked out by the yellow neck and pink bill; a flying one by the white rump and whistled call.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a large range and tolerates man-made landscapes such as pastures and roadsides; in Brazil it appears to be expanding.
Scientific name
Syrigma sibilatrix | (Temminck, 1824)
Temminck described the species in 1824 as Ardea sibilatrix; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Syrigma was introduced in 1878 by Ridgway. Syrigma is Greek for 'whistling', from surizō 'to whistle', after the whistled call. sibilatrix is Latin for 'female whistler', from sibilare 'to whistle', after the whistled call. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil and Paraguay.