The yellow bittern is a very small heron, with a feather cover in black and dull, dark yellowish colour. Typically it is just about 40 cm in length. The top of its head, tail and flight feathers are black. The neck is short, but the bill is long.
The male and female birds are slightly different. The male birds have a uniform pale yellow colour on their upper parts, while the lower parts are a kind of sandy brown. The head and neck are chestnut coloured. But the females have peculiar beautiful brown streaks on their neck, breast and on the top of the head. The little ones are also similar to females, but the streaks are denser.
These birds are usually solitary in nature, but they inhabit and breed in colonies of a large number of birds. They choose to live in wetlands where there are thick growths of tall grass-like plants or other small shrubs. It is in these grass beds that they make their nests, in which four to six eggs can be found. But their nests and therefore, the eggs are difficult to spot. Their main food includes fishes, frogs, insects etc.
These birds are mainly found in the Northeastern states of our country.