Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS

THE HERONS (Family Ardeida)

Bittern Booming

The manner in which this curious vocal effort is produced has given rise to most entertaining literature. Some early writers supposed that the bill was put inside a hollow reed to increase the volume of sound, but the greater number insisted that it was made with the bill partly under water, for it sounds, as Audubon well says,”as if the throat was filled with water.”I will quote from but one of these accounts, that given by Count Wodzecki of the European species as late as 1852. He says in part: “

The artist was standing on both feet, his body horizontal and his bill in the water, and then a rumbling began, the water squirting about all the time. After a few sounds I heard the u sound; the bird lifted his head, threw it backward, and thrust his bill into the water, and then he uttered a roar so fearfully loud that I was frightened."

It appears to be quite commonly supposed that our American Bittern produces the”booming”with the bill partially submerged, and a well-known writer on natural history in this country claims to have been an eye-witness to the performance, stating that”the bird's beak, when it uttered the cry, was not quite withdrawn from the water, and its voice, therefore, was materially modified by this fact."

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