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Description
The Great Bittern (or Eurasian Bittern), is one of the UKs most spectacular species, and I have spent 12 years trying to find these birds! The one at Amwell was of course a good sight, but it was on the other side of a lake, so up close it certainly wasn't. This one however seemed brave enough to come within 15 meters of a small crowd, myself included, and we were all amased by the display, as when the sun is shining the Bittern glows like a beacon!

The Great Bittern call is powerful, as I found out personally when I was near one doing a poor boom but it was still loud. Sometimes they got it right though, and it really does work, however I predict it will get even louder as the season passes. The Great Bittern has almost become extinct here in the UK at least twice, once due to hunting and another time, simply due to habitat destruction caused by man. And they say Foxes are bad?

When the Bittern is alerted, it shoots its head up to try and appear to be a few reeds, and its eyes appear to have been adapted to looking nearly directly down, so that the Bittern can see what is going on with minimal risk to losing its disguise.

This bird, despite it appearing to be related to the Grey Heron, does not seem to have the same characteristics at all. In their breeding season, Grey Herons would very often have 10 nests in 1 tree, which is unusual for such a big bird. The Great bittern on the other hand, is a territorial bird, and is aggressive to other Herons. Despite the size difference of Grey Herons being almost twice the size, they would rather not risk injury with these birds. Even Birds of Prey find them to be a bit of a struggle!

This picture I like in particular, as it is not a clean shot of the bird, but it is in focus on the subject, and not on the reeds. This shows you what kind of habitat the Bittern lives in, and it also shows you one of their little tricks on how they can climb the reeds.
These birds are native to the UK.

Description
The Great Bittern (or Eurasian Bittern), is one of the UKs most spectacular species, and I have spent 12 years trying to find these birds! The one at Amwell was of course a good sight, but it was on the other side of a lake, so up close it certainly wasn't. This one however seemed brave enough to come within 15 meters of a small crowd, myself included, and we were all amased by the display, as when the sun is shining the Bittern glows like a beacon!

The Great Bittern call is powerful, as I found out personally when I was near one doing a poor boom but it was still loud. Sometimes they got it right though, and it really does work, however I predict it will get even louder as the season passes. The Great Bittern has almost become extinct here in the UK at least twice, once due to hunting and another time, simply due to habitat destruction caused by man. And they say Foxes are bad?

When the Bittern is alerted, it shoots its head up to try and appear to be a few reeds, and its eyes appear to have been adapted to looking nearly directly down, so that the Bittern can see what is going on with minimal risk to losing its disguise.

This bird, despite it appearing to be related to the Grey Heron, does not seem to have the same characteristics at all. In their breeding season, Grey Herons would very often have 10 nests in 1 tree, which is unusual for such a big bird. The Great bittern on the other hand, is a territorial bird, and is aggressive to other Herons. Despite the size difference of Grey Herons being almost twice the size, they would rather not risk injury with these birds. Even Birds of Prey find them to be a bit of a struggle!

This picture I like in particular, as it is not a clean shot of the bird, but it is in focus on the subject, and not on the reeds. This shows you what kind of habitat the Bittern lives in, and it also shows you one of their little tricks on how they can climb the reeds.
These birds are native to the UK.