Least Bittern
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Philadelphia.
Most Least Bitterns go unnoticed: their preferred haunts are the dense grasses and reeds that grow out of water. Sometimes, though, you hear one singing that low, chuckling song …and then these birds can be an endearing mix of shy and confiding, almost as if they think that no-one can see them in their shadow-dappled shelter.