Green heron

The green heron (Butorides virescens) is a small heron of North and Central America. Butorides is from Middle English butor "bittern" and Ancient Greek -oides, "resembling", and virescens is Latin for "greenish".

Green heron
Temporal range:
Green heron have iridescent green feathers on their wings
Call
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Genus: Butorides
Species:
B. virescens
Binomial name
Butorides virescens
Range of B. virescens
  Breeding range
  Year-round range
  Wintering range
Synonyms

Ardea virescens Linnaeus, 1758
See text.

It was long considered conspecific with its sister species the striated heron (Butorides striata), and together they were called "green-backed heron". Birds of the nominate subspecies (no matter which taxonomic arrangement is preferred) are extremely rare vagrants to western Europefor example, a sighting in Pembrokeshire in 2018 was only the second recorded sighting in Wales; individuals from the Pacific coast of North America may similarly stray as far as Hawaii.

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