This unmistakable heron is found throughout the Amazonian basin and southern Central America.
It is usually found along wooded banks of slow-moving rivers and in swamps, marshes and mangroves.
Adult - Pantanal, Brazil - August 2000 |
 Immature - Pantanal, Brazil - August 2000 |
Immature birds are at first strongly barred (bottom photo) on the back and neck. As they mature, they lose the barring on the back fairly quickly but the neck markings only gradually disappear.
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