STRIATED HERON Butorides striata
Like a little hunchback, the Striated Heron waits patiently for his prey with his head lowered and neck loaded like a springing coil. An unsuspecting tadpole going about his daily business passes a little too close to the heron´s feet and WHAM, a movement so rapid that your brain barely registers that it has happened at all, and the tadpole is wriggling desperately in the heron´s bill-tip. With a quick gulp the tadpole´s time on our planet is over, and the heron has resumed his hunting posture, waiting for his next victim.
FIGURE 1 - Adult ventral, Estancia Laguna Blanca, Departamento San Pedro (Hemme Batjes November 2005).
FIGURE 2 - Adult lateral, PROCOSARA, PN San Rafael (Alberto Esquivel December 2007 - ECOSARA Biodiversity Database).
FIGURE 3 - Juvenile, Bahía Negra, Departamento Alto Paraguay (Teatske Nieuborg 2007).
FIGURE 4 - Juvenile in flight, Bahía de Asunción, Departamento Central (Teatske Nieuborg 2007).
FIGURE 5 - Nest with two chicks, location unknown (Arne Lesterhuis undated).
FIGURE 1

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 2

FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 4
FIGURE 5

FIGURE 5
Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.