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The sexes are very similar in color
during mating and breeding season, but the female is smaller and has a
shorter crest. Adult birds have a buffy white crown and nape with black
edged feathers. The feathers behind the crown and nape are longer,
narrower and whiter, forming a crest. The mantle and scapulars are also a
buffy brown and the feathers long and plume-like.
The back is a pale cinnamon color and
the rump, tail and upper parts of the wings are white, washed with yellow.
The feathers below the chin and throat is buffy white, shading into deep
buff on the sides of the neck, lower throat and upper breast. The rest of
the under parts are white. The bill of both sexes is a china blue with a
black tip and eyes are a bright yellow and legs and feet are red.
The crest and scapular feathers of
both sexes is shorter in their non breeding adult plumage
and more heavily streaked with black and olive-brown and paler yellow
above, with streaking extending to sides of the breast.
| The head and neck is also less buffy
and the throat whiter with the lower throat and upper breast pale
yellowish buff. The bill of both sexes is also a greenish yellow with
a black tip. Theirs eyes are still yellow but the legs and feet are a
yellowy-green. |
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Juveniles look similar to non-breeding
adults but don’t have the long crest and mantle plumes. Their mantle is
brown and wings a mottled brown. The underside of the breast is more
heavily streaked and the belly is grayish.
The bird is usually silent, but utters
harsh squawks and clucks (kaar, kak, charr, rrra, kwang, kaak and
kok) at dusk, mainly in the breeding season. They give a single
krruk (similar to a Cattle Egret croak, but deeper in tone) when
disturbed and may utter 3 krruks in succession when flushed. |
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Squacco Heron are found mostly south
of the Sahara and in South Africa are found throughout but are absent from
the arid and semi-arid Karoo and Kalahari.
Birds are mainly found at and around
fresh, still waters with dense fringing vegetation, flooded grasslands,
ephemeral pans with emergent vegetation.
They are usually solitary, but may
congregate in loose groups when foraging. Squacco Heron are very well
camouflaged when foraging in waterside plant cover and freezes when
disturbed as they are reluctant to fly. They roost communally and
sometimes with other species, from dawn to dusk, but may also roost during
the day.
Squacco Heron forage by walking slowly
at the waters edge or in the shallows, head held forward with bill
pointed, ready to strike. They also stand motionless in the shallows,
making quick darts at prey. They prey on fish up to 10 cm long, frogs,
aquatic insects and spiders, crustaceans and orthopterans.
Squacco Heron are monogamous but
usually freed in small to large colonies (up to 2000 nests), frequently in
mixed species colonies, but sometimes alone. Laying usually starts in
August and continues through to March.
The nest is built by the male and
takes around 3 days to construct. The nest is a bulky but compact
platform of thin sticks or reeds, lined with grass, placed in a bush or
tree over water, or in a reed bed, usually not more than 1 m above water.
They normally lay 2 to 4 regular oval,
plain matt greenish-blue eggs (darker and brighter when newly laid).
Both sexes incubate the eggs over a
period of 18 days. They are aggressive towards other birds when
incubating, attacking any bird that approaches the nest, including larger
herons. The sitting bird raises its neck and back plumes, lunges and
squawks at the intruder.
Newly hatched young are covered with a
mixture of grey, buff and white down and have yellowish olive eyes and a
yellow bill with a dark tip. Their legs and feet are olive in the front
and yellow behind. Hatchlings are fed by both parents. The nestling period
is approximately 35 days and approximately 1 to 2 hatchlings survive per
brood.
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