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Portrait of Bittern

Nature · Birds

Bittern

Resident · 69–81 cm

Botaurus stellaris — Ardeidae (herons and bitterns)

A secretive, heavily camouflaged heron of dense reedbeds, far more often heard than seen. The male's foghorn "boom" is the deepest call of any British bird and carries up to five kilometres. Extinct as a British breeder by about 1886 and again reduced to eleven booming males in 1997, it has been brought back by large-scale reedbed creation and is one of the flagship successes of UK conservation.

How to spot them

  • ▸Foghorn booming from a reedbed at dusk in spring, audible for miles
  • ▸Golden-buff plumage barred and streaked black; a black moustache stripe
  • ▸The 'bitterning' posture: bill pointed vertically, body striping matching the reeds
  • ▸Broad, rounded, owl-like wings in slow low flight over reeds, neck tucked in
  • ▸Counted not as pairs but as booming males

How to know it

A foghorn-deep 'whooomp' repeated from dense reeds at dusk, carrying up to five kilometres

The bittern's boom — the lowest-pitched call of any British bird, made by a male inflating his oesophagus.

Freezes with bill pointed straight up so its vertical brown streaking merges with the reed stems

The bittern's 'bitterning' or reed posture.

Golden-brown heron of reedbeds with a black crown and moustache; its UK population is counted in booming males

Bittern — a record 283 booming males in 2024 (RSPB and Natural England).

Reduced to eleven booming males in Britain in 1997; recovered through reedbed creation at Lakenheath Fen and the Somerset Levels

The bittern's recovery, funded by EU LIFE projects from 1996.

Its Latin name from 'boo-' for a bellowing ox; Gerard Manley Hopkins and John Clare both wrote of its 'bump'

Bittern — Botaurus stellaris, 'starry bull-bird'.

Flies with broad rounded wings and trailing legs, dropping abruptly back into the reeds

Bittern in flight — the jizz is owl-like, not heron-like.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Botaurus stellaris: Botaurus is thought to combine Latin boo (to bellow) with taurus (bull), and stellaris means 'starred', for the speckled plumage
  • •The UK breeding population is measured in booming males because females are almost never seen: a record 283 in 2024, a 20% rise on the previous survey and the biggest jump since monitoring began in 1990 (RSPB and Natural England)
  • •Over half the 2024 UK total — 138 booming males — was on RSPB reserves; BTO BirdFacts still carries the older figure of 191 males (2017 estimate)
  • •Amber-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021), having been Red-listed before its recovery
  • •Listed on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, so disturbing a nesting bird requires a licence
  • •It became extinct as a British breeding bird around 1886, recolonised Norfolk about 1911, then crashed again to 11 booming males in 1997
  • •The boom is produced by the male inflating his oesophagus; it is the deepest sound made by any European bird
  • •Old English and dialect names include 'butterbump', 'bogbumper' and 'mire-drum', all imitating the boom
  • •The bittern is a heron, not a crane or a rail, despite being counted like a rail and called 'bull of the bog'
  • •Strongholds include Minsmere and Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk, the Somerset Levels and the Norfolk Broads

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources