Vertebrate Zoology 64(2): 251-260, doi:
Genetic barcoding confirms first breeding record of the Yellow Bittern, Ixobrychus sinensis, (Aves: Pelecaniformes, Ardeidae) in the Western Palearctic
expand article infoMartin Päckert‡§, Jens Hering, Elmar Fuchs, Peter Barthel, Wieland Heim
‡ Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Dresden, Germany§ Senckenberg Natural History Collections, Dresden, Germany

Corresponding author: Martin Päckert ( martin.paeckert@senckenberg.de )

© Martin Päckert, Jens Hering, Elmar Fuchs, Peter Barthel, Wieland Heim.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Päckert M, Hering J, Fuchs E, Barthel P, Heim W (2014) Genetic barcoding confirms first breeding record of the Yellow Bittern, Ixobrychus sinensis, (Aves: Pelecaniformes, Ardeidae) in the Western Palearctic. Vertebrate Zoology 64(2): 251-260
Open Access
Abstract
We confirmed the first breeding record of the native Asian yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) in the Western Palearctic by genetic barcoding and morphometric analysis. In 2012 three small herons had been captured in Wadi Lahami at the western Red Sea coast of Egypt and these individuals had been tentatively determined as yellow bitterns. From blood samples of these birds we amplified and sequenced the barcoding marker (cytochrome-oxidase) and cytochrome-b and used sequences from own samples and further data inferred from GenBank for comparison. All three Egyptian specimens in question formed a monophyletic clade with sequences of I. sinensis and these were well separated from the sister species I. minutus in both phylogenetic reconstructions (p-distance, cytochrome-b: 9.6 %). A discriminant analysis based on six body-size parameters confirmed the assignment of these Egyptian specimens to I. sinensis. Along with this documentation we discuss phylogenetic relationships within Botaurinae and biogeographic aspects.
Keywords
Yellow bittern, Ixobrychus sinensis, genetic barcoding, Botaurinae, North Africa