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Information about Ardeidae

Heron
Enlarge picture
Snowy Egret, Egretta thula. Note the chicks in the nest.

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula. Note the chicks in the nest.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Ciconiiformes
Family:Ardeidae
Leach, 1820
Genera


See text.


The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons. Within the family, all members of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus are referred to as bitterns, and—including the Zigzag Heron or Zigzag Bittern—are a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae. However, egrets are not a biologically distinct group from the herons, and tend to be named differently because they are mainly white or have decorative plumes.

The classification of the individual heron/egret species is fraught with difficulty, and there is still no clear consensus about the correct placement of many species into either of the two major genera, Ardea and Egretta. Similarly, the relationship of the genera in the family is not completely resolved. For example, the Boat-billed Heron is sometimes classed as a heron, and sometimes given its own family Cochlearidae, but nowadays it is usually retained in the Ardeidae.

Although herons resemble birds in some other families, such as the storks, ibises and spoonbills, they differ from these in flying with their necks retracted, not outstretched. They are also one of the bird groups that have powder down.

The members of this family are mostly associated with wetlands, and prey on fish, frogs and other aquatic species. Some, like the Cattle Egret and Black-headed Heron, also take large insects, and are less tied to watery environments. Some members of this group nest colonially in trees, others, notably the bitterns, use reedbeds.

In February 2005, the Canadian scientist Dr. Louis Lefebvre announced a method of measuring avian IQ in terms of their innovation in feeding habits. Herons were named among the most intelligent birds based on this scale, reflecting a wide variety, flexibility and adaptiveness to acquire food.

Taxonomy

Analyses of the skeleton, mainly the skull, suggested that the Ardeidae could be split into a diurnal and a crepuscular/nocturnal group which included the bitterns. From DNA studies and skeletal analyses focusing more on bones of body and limbs, this grouping has been revealed as incorrect (McCracken & Sheldon 1998). Rather, the similarities in skull morphology reflect convergent evolution to cope with the different challenges of daytime and nighttime feeding. Today, it is believed that three major groups can be distinguished (Sheldon et al. 1995, 2000), which are (from the most primitive to the most advanced):
  • tiger herons and the boatbill
  • bitterns
  • day-herons and egrets, and night-herons
Enlarge picture
Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Tigrisoma mexicanum
The night herons could warrant separation as subfamily Nycticoracinae, as it was traditionally done. However, the position of some genera (e.g. Butorides or Syrigma) is unclear at the moment, and molecular studies have until now suffered from a small number of studied taxa. Especially the relationship among the ardeine subfamily is very badly resolved. The arrangement presented here should be considered provisional.

FAMILY ARDEIDAE

Subfamily Tigrisomatinae
Enlarge picture
Great Bittern, Botaurus stellaris
Subfamily Botaurinae Subfamily Ardeinae
Enlarge picture
Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
Fossil species of unresolved affiliations:
  • Xenerodiops (Early Oligocene of Fayyum, Egypt)
  • Ardeagradis
  • Calcardea
  • Proardeola - possibly same as Proardea
Other prehistoric and fossil species are included in the respective genus accounts.

References

  • McCracken, Kevin G. & Sheldon, Frederick H. (1998): Molecular and osteological heron phylogenies: sources of incongruence. Auk (journal) 115: 127–141. PDF fulltext
  • Sheldon, Frederick H.; McCracken, Kevin G. & Stuebing, Keeley D. (1995): Phylogenetic relationships of the zigzag heron (Zebrilus undulatus) and white-crested bittern (Tigriornis leucolophus) estimated by DNA-DNA hybridization. Auk 112(3): 672-679. PDF fulltext
  • Sheldon, Frederick H.; Jones, Clare E. & McCracken, Kevin G. (2000): Relative Patterns and Rates of Evolution in Heron Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA. Molecular Biology and Evolution 17(3): 437–450. PDF fulltext

External links

E. thula

Binomial name
Egretta thula
(Molina, 1782)

The Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) is a small white heron.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Ciconiiformes
Bonaparte, 1854

Families
  • Ardeidae
  • Cochlearidae (the Boat-billed Heron)
  • Balaenicipitidae (the Shoebill)
  • Scopidae (the Hammerkop)
  • Ciconiidae
  • Threskiornithidae
  • Cathartidae
Traditionally, the order
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William Elford Leach FRS (February 2, 1790 – August 26, 1836) was an English zoologist and marine biologist.

Leach was born in Plymouth, the son of a solicitor. At the age of twelve he went to school in Exeter, studying anatomy and chemistry.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets.
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Ixobrychus Billberg, 1828
Botaurus Stephens, 1819

Bitterns are a classification of wading birds in the heron family Ardeidae. Species named as bitterns tend to be the shorter necked, often more secretive members of this family.
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Z. undulatus

Binomial name
Zebrilus undulatus
(Gmelin, 1789)

The Zigzag Heron (Zebrilus undulatus) is a species of heron in the Ardeidae family.
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In phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (Greek: "of one race") if it consists of an inferred common ancestor and all its descendants. A taxonomic group that contains organisms but not their common ancestor is called polyphyletic, and a group that contains some but not all
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Ardea
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

Many: see text

Ardea is a genus of herons. Linnaeus named this genus as the Great Herons
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Egretta
T. Forster, 1817

Species

See text.

Egretta is a genus of medium-sized herons, mostly breeding in warmer climates.
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genus (plural: genera) is part of the Latinized name for an organism. It is a name which reflects the classification of the organism by grouping it with other closely similar organisms.
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Cochlearius
Brisson, 1760

Species: C. cochlearius

Binomial name
Cochlearius cochlearius
Linnaeus, 1766


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Cochlearius
Brisson, 1760

Species: C. cochlearius

Binomial name
Cochlearius cochlearius
Linnaeus, 1766


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Ciconiidae
Gray, 1840

Genera

See text.
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long stout bills, belonging to the family Ciconiidae.
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Plateinae

Genera and Species

See text.

Spoonbills are a group of large, long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, which also includes the Ibises.
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Powder down is a special type of down feathers. They occur in a few groups of apparently unrelated birds and thus are probably evolutionary homoplasies. These down feathers differ from the usual down as they are exceptionally fine and produce a dust between the frons.
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In physical geography, a wetland is an environment "at the interface between truly terrestrial ecosystems and aquatic systems making them inherently
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Bubulcus
Bonaparte, 1855

Species: B. ibis

Binomial name
Bubulcus ibis
Linnaeus, 1758

The Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis
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A. melanocephala

Binomial name
Ardea melanocephala
Vigors & Children, 1826

The Black-headed Heron (Ardea melanocephala
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intelligence quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence. IQ tests are used as predictors of educational achievement. People with low IQ scores are sometimes placed in special-needs education.
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skull is a bony structure found in many animals which serves as the general framework for the head. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury.

The skull can be subdivided into two parts: the cranium and the mandible.
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In animal behavior, diurnality is an animal that is active during the daytime and rests during the night. Animals that are not diurnal are either nocturnal (active at night) or crepuscular (active primarily during twilight, i.e., at dusk and dawn).
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