Cinnamon Bittern

The cinnamon bittern is a small bittern, 38 to 41cm long with a wingspan of 49.5cm, weighing 89.5 to 164g. Males are cinnamon above and buff below, females have brown backs and crowns, and young birds are heavily streaked brown below. It lives in reed beds and hunts at dusk, feeding alone and defending its territory, on insects, fish, molluscs and amphibians, especially frogs (Wikipedia, general species account).

It builds a reed-platform nest in shrubs and lays two to six eggs, incubated for about 23 days. It is found across tropical and subtropical Asia from India east to China and Indonesia; most birds are resident and some northern populations make short migrations. The source records it up to 2,800 to 4,000m in Bhutan but does not name Nepal. A 2023 study moved it from Ixobrychus into Botaurus (Wikipedia, general species account).