Green-backed Heron (Butorides striata) | Details

Green-backed Heron Butorides striata

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic note
Butorides striata (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was previously split as B. striata and B. virescens following AOU (2003), and before then B. striata was split as B. striatus and B. sundevalli following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993). Gender agreement of B. striata follows David and Gosselin (2002).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2022	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2014	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	184 g

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	305,000,000 km²	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	287,000,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	173000-1500000 mature individuals	poor	suspected	2011
Population trend	stable	-	suspected	-
Generation length	5.1 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population has not been quantified given recent taxonomic changes. The last population estimate, from Wetlands International (2021), is 260,000-2,300,000 individuals in total, which equates to roughly 173,000-1,500,000 mature individuals. Most, if not all, of these estimates are from before 2011.

Trend justification: The population is thought to be stable, although some populations may have decreasing trends (Partners in Flight 2019, Wetlands International 2019).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Angola	extant	native	yes
Anguilla (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Antigua and Barbuda	extant	native	yes
Argentina	extant	native	yes
Aruba (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Australia	extant	native	yes
Bahamas	extant	native	yes
Bahrain	extant	vagrant
Bangladesh	extant	native	yes
Barbados	extant	native	yes
Belize	extant	native	yes
Benin	extant	native	yes
Bermuda (to UK)	extant	vagrant
Bhutan	extant	native	yes
Bolivia	extant	native	yes
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Botswana	extant	native	yes
Brazil	extant	native	yes
British Indian Ocean Territory	extant	vagrant
Brunei	extant	native	yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native	yes
Burundi	extant	native	yes
Cambodia	extant	native	yes
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Canada	extant	native		yes
Cayman Islands (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Central African Republic	extant	native	yes
Chad	extant	native	yes
Chile	extant	vagrant
China (mainland)	extant	native	yes	yes
Christmas Island (to Australia)	extant	vagrant
Colombia	extant	native	yes
Comoros	extant	native	yes
Congo	extant	native	yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native	yes
Costa Rica	extant	native	yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native	yes
Cuba	extant	native	yes
Curaçao (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Djibouti	extant	native	yes
Dominica	extant	native	yes
Dominican Republic	extant	native	yes
Ecuador	extant	native	yes
Egypt	extant	native	yes
El Salvador	extant	native	yes
Equatorial Guinea	extant	native	yes
Eritrea	extant	native	yes
Eswatini	extant	native	yes
Ethiopia	extant	native	yes
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	extant	vagrant
Fiji	extant	native	yes
French Guiana	extant	native	yes
French Polynesia	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native	yes
Gambia	extant	native	yes
Ghana	extant	native	yes
Greenland (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Grenada	extant	native	yes
Guadeloupe (to France)	extant	native	yes
Guam (to USA)	extant	vagrant
Guatemala	extant	native	yes
Guinea	extant	native	yes
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native	yes
Guyana	extant	native	yes
Haiti	extant	native	yes
Honduras	extant	native	yes
India	extant	native	yes
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes
Israel	extant	vagrant
Jamaica	extant	native	yes
Japan	extant	native	yes
Jordan	extant	vagrant
Kenya	extant	native	yes
Laos	extant	native	yes
Liberia	extant	native	yes
Madagascar	extant	native	yes
Malawi	extant	native	yes
Malaysia	extant	native	yes
Maldives	extant	native	yes
Mali	extant	native	yes
Martinique (to France)	extant	native	yes
Mauritania	extant	native	yes
Mauritius	extant	native	yes
Mayotte (to France)	extant	native	yes
Mexico	extant	native	yes	yes	yes
Micronesia, Federated States of	extant	vagrant
Montserrat (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Mozambique	extant	native	yes
Myanmar	extant	native	yes	yes
Namibia	extant	native	yes
Nepal	extant	native	yes
New Caledonia (to France)	extant	native	yes
Nicaragua	extant	native	yes
Niger	extant	native	yes
Nigeria	extant	native	yes
North Korea	extant	native		yes
Northern Mariana Islands (to USA)	extant	native				yes
Oman	extant	native	yes
Pakistan	extant	native	yes
Palau	extant	native			yes	yes
Panama	extant	native	yes
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes
Paraguay	extant	native	yes
Peru	extant	native	yes
Philippines	extant	native	yes
Portugal	extant	vagrant
Puerto Rico (to USA)	extant	native	yes
Qatar	extant	native	yes
Réunion (to France)	extant	native	yes
Russia	extant	native		yes
Russia (Asian)	extant	native		yes
Rwanda	extant	native	yes
São Tomé e Príncipe	extant	native	yes
Saudi Arabia	extant	native	yes
Senegal	extant	native	yes
Seychelles	extant	native	yes
Sierra Leone	extant	native	yes
Singapore	extant	native	yes
Sint Maarten (to Netherlands)	extant	native	yes
Solomon Islands	extant	native	yes
Somalia	extant	native	yes
South Africa	extant	native	yes
South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands	extant	vagrant
South Korea	extant	native	yes	yes
South Sudan	extant	native	yes
Sri Lanka	extant	native	yes
St Barthelemy (to France)	extant	native	yes
St Helena (to UK)	extant	vagrant
St Kitts and Nevis	extant	native	yes
St Lucia	extant	native	yes
St Martin (to France)	extant	native	yes
St Pierre and Miquelon (to France)	extant	vagrant
St Vincent and the Grenadines	extant	native	yes
Sudan	extant	native	yes
Suriname	extant	native	yes
Taiwan, China	extant	native	yes
Tanzania	extant	native	yes
Thailand	extant	native	yes
Timor-Leste	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native	yes
Trinidad and Tobago	extant	native	yes
Turks and Caicos Islands (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Uganda	extant	native	yes
United Arab Emirates	extant	native	yes
United Kingdom	extant	vagrant
Uruguay	extant	native	yes
USA	extant	native	yes	yes
Vanuatu	extant	native	yes
Venezuela	extant	native	yes
Vietnam	extant	native	yes
Virgin Islands (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Virgin Islands (to USA)	extant	native	yes
Yemen	extant	native	yes
Zambia	extant	native	yes
Zimbabwe	extant	native	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Philippines	Pagbilao and Tayabas Bay

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Canals and Drainage Channels, Ditches	suitable	resident
Artificial/Aquatic & Marine	Artificial/Aquatic - Ponds (below 8ha)	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Seasonally Wet/Flooded	suitable	resident
Marine Intertidal	Mud Flats and Salt Flats	suitable	resident
Marine Intertidal	Salt Marshes (Emergent Grasses)	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Bogs, Marshes, Swamps, Fens, Peatlands	major	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls)	suitable	resident
Wetlands (inland)	Shrub Dominated Wetlands	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 1900 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Green-backed Heron Butorides striata. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/green-backed-heron-butorides-striata on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.