E’ il più piccolo degli aironi europei. Appartiene all’ordine Ciconiiformes, famiglia Ardeidae e il suo nome scientifico è Ixobrychus minutus. The sexes are differentiated: male, with head, back and tail, blacks, body and neck brown, black wings with two large brown spots. Female similar but less contrasting colors and dark longitudinal stripes on the neck. In flight, usually grazing, the waters, it is clear contrast in the plumage.
Solitary and territorial, nests in reeds in the wetlands, even small margins as former quarries and canals and ditches. The nest is built among the reeds or small shrubs, usually less than a meter above the ground. The diet consists mostly of insects, amphibians and fish that are caught on the ground tra il fitto della vegetazione o sul pelo dell’acqua. Quando si sente minacciato assume posizione eretta con collo disteso e becco all’insù imitando così le canne palustri tra le quali si rifugia. Il comportamento mimetico di difesa tra le canne è talmente istintivo che viene attuato anche quando il Tarabusino si trova allo scoperto. Così può capitare che i soggetti catturati e inanellati a scopo scientifico, una volta rilasciati, non volino immediatamente ma si fermino in atteggiamento perfettamente mimetico in mezzo al nulla.
Migratore totale, trascorre l’inverno in Africa a sud del Sahara. E’ presente in gran parte dell’Europa dal Mediterranean to Scandinavia. In Italy it nests in a widespread, but most of the population is concentrated in the Po Valley and in coastal wetlands of the northern Adriatic. In number of breeding pairs in Europe is calculated at approximately 35,000 (perhaps another 20,000 in Russia). Compared with other herons, of which we have accurate counts of nests of the colonies, the number of breeding pairs in Italy is only an estimate. In Lombardy, about 200 of the 2000 nesting pairs suggested. Because of the rarity of the habitat and reproductive changes, Europe's population is declining and the species is among those considered vulnerable.
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