Summary

  • Natural history: American Bitterns rely on a distinctive freeze display, tipping the bill straight up so their streaked front feathers double as reed camouflage, and when that is not enough they will rock the body slowly to match the marsh grass swaying in the breeze. Its odd, resonant ‘pump-handle’ call can carry several hundred meters across open marsh, often the only clue to a bird that is otherwise nearly impossible to see. Vermont’s marshes have bucked a broader regional trend of decline in New York, Pennsylvania, and around the Great Lakes, a divergence encouraging enough that wildlife officials recently removed the bittern from Vermont’s Species of Special Concern list.
  • Status in VT: Increased by 71% (42 to 72 blocks).  Greatest increase in Northeastern Highlands.
  • Data from other research: No additional data for VT.
  • Conservation status: State rank S3B; no longer Species of Special Concern as of April 2010.
  • Other atlases: NY: -10%; PA: -42%; ON: no sig. change.
  • VT’s role in North American range: VT is within the core of the range.
  • Causes of change since first Atlas: Unknown.
  • Management/Monitoring recommendations:Increase monitoring efforts; use of recorded vocalizations in surveys to provide better understanding of population changes in VT.

Population Trends

American Bittern graph

First Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (1976-1981)

Species Account

Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (2003 – 2007)

Species Account

American Bittern Map 1American Bittern Table 1American Bittern Table 2

Change in Distribution

American Bittern Map 2American Bittern Table 3

Links

Vermont eBird

Encyclopedia of Life

All About Birds