Black Bittern

The black bittern is a medium-sized bittern, 54 to 66cm long. Males are black above with buff neck sides and a brown-streaked neck, females are dark brown, and young birds are paler than females. It is secretive and skulking, most active at dusk, dawn and night, though it flies fairly often (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in reed beds, eating frogs, fish up to 15cm, crustaceans and insects, and nests on reed platforms in shrubs or sometimes trees. It lays three to five eggs and the chicks first leave the nest at about 15 days. It breeds from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to China, Indonesia and Australia, is mostly resident, and northern birds migrate short distances. Three subspecies are recognised. The source does not name Nepal (Wikipedia, general species account).