Eurasian bittern

Common name: Eurasian bittern

Scientific name: Botaurus stellaris 

Class: Aves

Order: Ciconiiformes

Family: Ardeide

Nutrition:  Small molluscs, frogs, tadpoles, fishes, snakes, lizards, small mammals, crustaceans, insects, marsh plant seeds, grass.

Features: It can reach a wingspan of over a metre. It is distinguished by its mottled plumage, which allows it to camouflage itself among the reeds, the environment in which it lives and breeds. In Italy it is present in inland and coastal wetlands of the Po Valley as far as the Veneto and Friuli coasts, in Tuscany and in isolated sites in Umbria and Apulia.

Curiosity: It lives in dense reed beds and due to its nocturnal habits is difficult to spot.