Cinnamon Bittern In Australia

[Carl Clifford <>]

Dear All,

After reading Adrian Boyle's post re the finding of a Cinnamon Bittern  
S of Broome, something rang a bell. I remembered a paper in the  
Oriental Bird Club's journal, "Forktail" from a few years back. After  
digging through a few issues. I came across the paper, "Waterbirds and  
coastal seabirds of Timor-Leste (East Timor): status and distribution  
from surveys in August 2002-December 2004" Forktail 21 (2005): 61-78  
by Colin R Trainor. In the paper, Trainor cites a short communication  
in the Indonesian journal "Kukila" 8 (1996) 158-159 "First record of  
Cinnamon Bittern for Timor" Noske, RA and Ueda, K, in which the  
authors described their sighting of a CB near Kupang, West Timor in  
December 1995. When Trainor carried out his surveys in 2002-2004, he  
found that Cinnamon Bitterns were locally common at several locations  
on the Fuiloro Plateau.
Cinnamon Bitterns are pretty good fliers, and migrate from East Asia  
to SE Asia. Vagrants have turned up as far out of their normal range  
as the Seychelles and Maldives. There are recorded breeding records  
from as far east in the Lesser Sundas as Flores. It is only some 800Km  
from Timor to Australia, not a great distance for a CB
With with breeding and non-breeding records so close to Australia, it  
is not inconceivable that the species may be extending it's range into  
Northern Australia. There is some 500,000 Km2 of the Top End with  
possibly suitable habitat, particularly during the Wet, so there could  
already be a population up there. Unfortunately the most likely areas  
for them to be found are fairly isolated and have poor access in the  
Wet. Also, I don't think you get that many birders get around that  
part of the country.
It will be interesting to see if any further CBs turn up in the north  
in the next few years. It will certainly be worthwhile for those in  
the area to keep an eye open.
Cheers,

Carl Clifford 
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