They were called hæferblæte in Old English; the word "bittern" came to English from Old French butor, itself from Gallo-roman butitaurus, a portmanteau of Latin būtiō and taurus.
bittern | Least Bittern | Bittern Line | Pinnated Bittern | New Zealand Little Bittern | Bittern |
Animals in the sanctuary include the flying squirrel, slender loris, Indian pangolin, mouse deer, four-horned antelope, Malabar pit viper, hump-nosed pit viper, white-bellied woodpecker, Malabar trogon, velvet-fronted nuthatch, heart-spotted woodpecker, speckled piculet, Malayan bittern, draco or flying lizard, golden-back gliding snake, and Malabar tree toad.
Birds that visit the reserve during the winter include cranes, goldeneyes, shovelers and teals, while bitterns, marsh harriers, pochards, water rails and Cetti’s warblers stay for most of the year.
A dark rufous morph, "neoxenus", termed "Cory's Bittern" or "Cory's Least Bittern" was originally described by Cory as a separate species in 1885, from a specimen collected on or near the Caloosahatchee River, near Lake Okeechobee, in southwest Florida; Cory stated that the specimen was "without doubt perfectly distinct from any other known species".
German naturalist Johann Georg Wagler, who first described the Pinnated Bittern in 1829, placed it in the genus Ardea at that time.
It is an important breeding, moulting and resting area for numerous birds including the Kingfisher, Bittern, Whooper Swan, Goosander, Great Crested Grebe, Crane and Sea Eagle.
It is formed from the largest tidal reedbed in England, and is visited by 270 species of birds, including breeding pairs of bearded tits, bitterns and marsh harriers, for which it is of national importance.