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Eurasian bittern
The Eurasian bittern or great bittern (''Botaurus stellaris'') is a wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae. There are two subspecies, the northern race (''B. s. stellaris'') breeding in parts of Europe and Asia, as well as on the northern coast of Africa, while the southern race (''B. s. capensis'') is endemic to parts of southern Africa. It is a secretive bird, seldom seen in the open as it prefers to skulk in reed beds and thick vegetation near water bodies. Its presence is apparent in the spring, when the booming call of the male during the breeding season can be heard. It feeds on fish, small mammals, fledgling birds, amphibians, crustaceans and insects.
The nest is usually built among reeds at the edge of bodies of water. The female incubates the clutch of eggs and feeds the young chicks, which leave the nest when about two weeks old. She continues to care for them until they are fully fledged some six weeks later. With its specific habitat requirements and the general reduction in wetlands across its range, the population is thought to be in decline globally. However the decline is slow, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its overall conservation status as being of "least concern". Nevertheless, some local populations are at risk and the population of the southern race has declined more dramatically and is cause for concern.
==Taxonomy and etymology==
This species was first described in 1758 as ''Ardea stellaris'' by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his ''Systema Naturae''. In 1819, the English naturalist James Francis Stephens, coined the genus ''Botaurus'' for the bitterns to distinguish them from ''Ardea'', the great herons.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Botaurus'' Stephens, 1819 )〕 It is placed in the subfamily Botaurinae, and its closest relatives are the American bittern (''Botaurus lentiginosus''), the pinnated bittern (''Botaurus pinnatus'') and the Australasian bittern (''Botaurus poiciloptilus''). Two races of Eurasian bittern are recognised; the nominate subspecies ''B. s. stellaris'' has a palearctic distribution and occurs across a broad swathe of Europe, North Africa and Asia, while the other subspecies, ''B. s. capensis'', occurs only in southern Africa.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Great Bittern: ''Botaurus stellaris'' (Linnaeus, 1758) )〕 The name ''capensis'' was used for species found in the Afrotropics for which no exact range was known.
The generic name ''Botaurus'' was given by the English naturalist James Francis Stephens, and is the Latin for bittern; the name is derived from ''Bos'' (ox) and ''taurus'' (bull), because the bittern's call resembles the bellowing of a bull. The specific epithet, ''stellaris'', is the Latin for ''starry'', in reference to its speckled plumage. Its folk names, often local, include many variations on the themes of "barrel-maker", "bog-bull", "bog hen", "bog-trotter", "bog-bumper", "mire drum()", "butter bump", "bitter bum",〔 "bog blutter", "bog drum", "boom bird", "bottle-bump", "bull of the bog", "bull of the mire", "bumpy cors", and "heather blutter". Most of these were onomatopoeic colloquial names for the bird; the call was described as "bumping"〔 or "booming". Mire and bog denote the bird's habitat.〔
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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