Standing proud

During a visit to Marievale Bird Sanctuary this afternoon, we picked up this Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus) in the open on the top of some reeds.

These birds are solitary, normally shy and skulking, and hard to flush. When alarmed they adopt the 'bittern posture' with bill pointing vertically. Surprisingly we saw at least 6 individuals today, and were fortunate, as on many visits one can go without.