All species › Pelicans, herons and ibises › Herons and bitterns › Rufous-Bellied Heron
Rufous-Bellied Heron | Ardeola rufiventris
Roodbuikreiger | Garcilla Ventrirroja
The Rufous-Bellied Heron is a small, dark heron of shallow, vegetated floodplains. Its dark colours make it inconspicuous in the vegetation, but a good view of the rufous belly, wings and tail and the yellow legs leaves no doubt.
Voice
Seldom heard. On take-off or when disturbed a hoarse, rasping kaa; soft guttural sounds at the colony.
Recording: Derek Solomon — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 38 cm, compact and short-necked. The male has a dark slate-grey head, neck, breast and back and a deep rufous-chestnut belly, wings, rump and tail. The bill is yellow with a dark tip, the lores yellow and the legs yellow, bright orange-yellow in the breeding season. The female is duller and browner, with a pale stripe down the throat and foreneck. Juveniles resemble the female, with a paler, streaked throat. In flight it is entirely dark, with no white in the wing.
Confusion species
Slaty Egret Egretta vinaceigula is larger and slimmer, wholly slate-grey, with only a small rufous throat and a black bill. Black Heron Egretta ardesiaca is larger and black, with black legs and yellow feet. Striated Heron Butorides striata has a black cap, a grey-green back with pale-scaled wings and grey underparts. Squacco Heron Ardeola ralloides shares the same build but is buff-brown with white wings.
Habitat
Shallow, seasonally flooded grassland, marshes and the edges of lagoons with short, dense vegetation and water lilies. It forages by creeping or standing among the vegetation, often half hidden, taking small fish, frogs, crayfish and aquatic insects. It breeds in small groups in reeds or papyrus, sometimes among other herons.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Mainly in northern Botswana (Okavango Delta, Linyanti and Chobe), the Caprivi Strip of Namibia and Zambia (Kafue Flats, Bangweulu, Liuwa Plain); also in south-eastern Angola, locally in Zimbabwe and Malawi and rarely in Mozambique. In South Africa a scarce and irregular visitor to the north-east, including Nylsvley, where it sometimes breeds. Beyond the region it occurs in Tanzania, southern DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and rarely Kenya.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best from a mokoro or boat in the shallow lagoons and flooded grassland of the Okavango Delta, or on the Kafue Flats as the water drops. Look for a small dark heron that flushes briefly above the grass and quickly drops back in; in flight the rufous wings and yellow legs are easy to see.
Conservation status
Not threatened, but within the region tied to large, naturally flooding wetlands. Changes in water regime, drainage and fire on the floodplains can strongly affect local populations; in South Africa the species is regarded as vulnerable.
Scientific name
Ardeola rufiventris | (Sundevall, 1850)
Sundevall described the species in 1850 as Ardea rufiventris; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Ardeola was introduced in 1822 by Boie. Ardeola is Latin, a diminutive of ardea 'heron', so 'little heron'. rufiventris comes from the Latin rufus, 'rufous', and venter, 'belly' — for the chestnut belly. The specimen the first description was based on came from Mooi River near Potchefstroom, South Africa.