Green heron

Green heron
Temporal range: Pleistocene–present
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Green heron have iridescent green feathers on their wings
Call
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Genus: Butorides
Species:
B. virescens
Binomial name
Butorides virescens
Range of B. virescens
  Breeding range
  Year-round range
  Wintering range
Synonyms

Ardea virescens Linnaeus, 1758
See text.

The green heron (Butorides virescens) is a small heron of North and Central America. Butorides is from Middle English butor "bittern" and Ancient Greek -oides, "resembling", and virescens is Latin for "greenish".[2]

It was long considered conspecific with its sister species the striated heron (Butorides striata), and together they were called "green-backed heron". Birds of the nominate subspecies (no matter which taxonomic arrangement is preferred) are extremely rare vagrants to western Europe—for example, a sighting in Pembrokeshire in 2018 was only the second recorded sighting in Wales;[3] individuals from the Pacific coast of North America may similarly stray as far as Hawaii.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2012). "Butorides virescens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. ^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 81, 402. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  3. ^ "Rare green heron spotted in Llanmill, Pembrokeshire". BBC News. 30 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference HBW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference CLO was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference ADW was invoked but never defined (see the help page).