White-necked Heron
英文名：White-necked Heron（学名：Ardea pacifica），是鹈形目鹭科鹭属的鸟类。大型涉禽，头颈呈白色，体羽深石青色，广泛分布于澳大利亚大陆的淡水环境，偶尔见于印尼部分地区和新几内亚，但在塔斯马尼亚较为罕见。其体型大，站立时长颈白皙，头部亦白，与深色体羽形成鲜明对比。
White-necked Heron
76 cm-1.06 m; span to 1.6 m. In breeding plumage unmarked white head/neck contrasts with slate-black wings/body; plum-coloured breeding-plumes on back/breast. Bill and legs black. Non-breedingbirds often buffy white, lack coloured plumes, have double line of black spots down foreneck; streaked black below. Juvenile: head/neck buffy white, more plentifully spotted on foreneck. Singles, loose companies to hundreds, in shallow fresh water and grasslands. Flight stately, slow-beating; neck folded; looks big, dark, long-winged in air; easily identified by two prominent white patches ('landing lights') on leading edge of each wing.
- Other name
- Pacific Heron.
- Similar Species
- White-faced Heron; Pied Heron, imm.
- Voice
- guttural croak.
- Habitat
- shallow fresh waters: claypans, flooded pastures, farm dams, roadside puddles; occasionally home fishponds; rarely tidal areas.
- Breeding
- mostly Sept.-Dec. in s. Aust.; any month after good rain.
- Nest
- rough, shallow structure of sticks; in living tree, e.g. river red gum, 3-18 m over water. Singles or small colonies; often with cormorants, spoonbills.
- Eggs
- 3-4; blue-green.
- Range & Status
- mainland Aust., irregular Tas.; regular winter-spring movements in many regions; vagrant PNG, NZ.
