There had been reports of an American Bittern at Humboldt Park in Milwaukee County. This morning I thought I would try for it. As I walked halfway around the pond at the park, there it was out in the open 20 feet off shore. It pretty much did nothing as I watched it for about 20 minutes with no one around other than a few walkers. After the wait time it then flew across the pond to the other side. I walked around the pond to watch it and there it was hunting, walking very slowly through the dead knocked down cattails etc. After a few minutes it latched onto a large frog. It worked very hard to kill and the frog put up a good fight to stay alive, but the American Bittern won. It then swallowed it! The American Bittern moved its neck back and forth for a while to get the frog down some out of its neck-throat area. After that the bird just walked into some taller grass and took a break. Interesting, is that a gentleman who was a regular at the park came over to watch the event just before it happened and talking to him said the American Bittern was there on April 27th of the year. It was a gorgeous morning with temps around 45 degrees and full sun, but there was a good breeze making it cool at times. Images were taken on October 20, 2025.
The American Bittern…
A little bit of hunting here but came up empty, flies to the other side of the pond then…
Catches a nice frog here!
Everyone has to eat…
Thinking about putting it down the throat, and it does…
A normal position for this species, they are often missed as they don’t move much and look like a stump…
The setting…cell photo…
