Ixobrychus

Belongs within: Ardeidae.

The genus Ixobrychus is generally recognised as including the smaller bitterns, relatively short-necked, stout members of the heron family. However, recent phylogenetic analyses (e.g. Jetz et al. 2012) suggest that the larger bitterns of the genus Botaurus may also be nested within the clade formed by the Ixobrychus species. The smaller bitterns are often more boldly coloured than the Botaurus species which are uniformly streaked brown.

<==Ixobrychus Billberg 1828 [=Ardetta Gray 1842; incl. Ardeola Bonaparte 1852 non Boie 1822, Nannocnus Stejneger 1887]CC10
    |  i. s.: I. novaezelandiae (Purdie 1871) [=Ardeola novaezelandiae, I. minutus novaezelandiae]CC10
    |         I. sturmiiJT12
    |--I. involucrisBKB15
    `--+--+--I. exilis (Gmelin 1789)BKB15, CS77 [=Ardea exilisCS77, *Ardeola exilisCC10]
       |  |    |--I. e. exilisE52
       |  |    `--I. e. erythromelasE52
       |  `--Botaurus Stephens in Shaw 1819BKB15, CC10 [Botaurini]
       |       |  i. s.: B. poiciloptilus (Wagler 1827)CC10 (see below for synonymy)
       |       |--*B. stellaris (Linnaeus 1758)CC10, BKB15, M02 [=Ardea stellarisCC10; incl. Nycticorax fenensis Friant 1950M02]
       |       |    |--B. s. stellaris [incl. B. stellaris orientalis Buturlin 1908]CS77
       |       |    `--B. s. capensis (Schlegel 1863)CS77
       |       `--+--B. lentiginosus Montagu 1813BKB15, CS77 [=Ardea lentiginosaCS77; incl. B. minor Reinhardt 1872S05]
       |          `--B. pinnatusBKB15
       `--+--I. eurhythmus (Swinhoe 1873)BKB15, CS77 [=Ardetta eurhythmaCC10, *Nannocnus eurhythmusCC10]
          |--+--*I. minutus (Linnaeus 1766)CC10, BKB15, CC10 [=Ardea minutaCC10, *Ardetta minutaCC10]
          |  |    |--I. m. minutusCC10
          |  |    |--‘Ardea’ m. australis [incl. Ardeola podiceps]S66
          |  |    |--I. m. dubius Mathews 1912 (see below for synonymy)CC10
          |  |    `--I. m. payesii (Hartlaub 1858)CS77
          |  `--I. sinensisBKB15
          `--+--I. cinnamomeusBKB15
             `--I. flavicollis (Latham 1790)BKB15, CC10 [=Ardea flavicollisWS48, Dupetor flavicollisCC10]
                  |--I. f. flavicollisWS48
                  `--‘Dupetor’ f. gouldi (Bonaparte 1855) (see below for synonymy)WS48

Botaurus poiciloptilus (Wagler 1827)^CC10 [=Ardea poiciloptila^CC10, Ardea poeciloptera Finsch 1870^CC10, A. poiceloptera Hutton 1871^CC10, Botaurus poecilopterus^CC10, B. poeciloptilus^CC10, B. stellaris poiciloptilus^CC10; incl. B. australis Gould 1848^CC10, B. poiciloptilus maorianus Iredale & Mathews 1926^CC10, B. poiciloptilus mathewsi Hachisuka 1931^CC10, B. melanotus Gray in Dieffenbach 1843 non Brehm 1842^CC10, B. poiciloptilus melanotus^CC10, B. poiciloptilus westraliensis Mathews 1912^WS48]

‘Dupetor’ flavicollis gouldi (Bonaparte 1855) [=Ardetta gouldi; incl. Ardeiralla flavicollis disneyi Mathews 1912]^WS48

Ixobrychus minutus dubius Mathews 1912 [incl. I. minutus alisteri Mathews 1913, Ardea pusilla Vieillot 1817 non Statius Müller 1776, Ardetta pusilla, Ixobrychus minutus queenslandicus Mathews 1914, I. minutus victoria Mathews 1915]^CC10

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[BKB15] Burleigh, J. G., R. T. Kimball & E. L. Braun. 2015. Building the avian tree of life using a large-scale, sparse supermatrix. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 84: 53–63.

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[CS77] Cramp, S., & K. E. L. Simmons (eds) 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palaearctic vol. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

[E52] Eisenmann, E. 1952. Annotated list of birds of Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 117 (5): 1–62.

[JT12] Jetz, W., G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. Ø. Mooers. 2012. The global diversity of birds in space and time. Nature 491: 444–448.

[M02] Mlíkovský, J. 2002. Cenozoic Birds of the World. Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press: Praha.

[S05] Schalow, H. 1905. Die Vögel der Arktis. In: Römer, F., & F. Schaudinn (eds) Fauna Arctica. Eine Zusammenstellun der arktischen Tierformen, mit besonder Berücksichtigung des Spitzbergen-Gebietes auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Deutschen Expedition in das Nördliche Eismeer im Jahre 1898 vol. 4 pp. 79–288. Gustav Fischer: Jena.

[S66] Schlegel, H. 1866. Communication from, on mammals and birds collected in Madagascar. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1866: 419–426.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.