Egrets
Ama-bird
Drawing after a fresco in the tomb of Baqt, Beni Hassan
Source: Champollion, Monuments de l'Egypte et fe la Nubie, 1846, t.IV, pl.CCCL
Herons, egrets, bitterns
Many members of this family are migratory and pass through Egypt, like the Squacco Heron and the Little Egret. Others winter by the Nile, like the Cattle Egret and the Great White Egret. Night Herons and Little Bitterns may spend the summer.The benu, identified with the phoenix, was a heron-like bird.
The Ama-bird, known from the tomb of Baqt at Beni Hassan, has been identified by C. Gaillard with the Little Bittern, a nocturnal bird hiding during the day among the rushes of the Delta swamps. The Wörterbuch does not commit itself and describes the Ama as a "perching bird".
Heron
Night Herons
Strabo, a first century CE geographer described the night herons found in Egypt as follows:
The nycticorax (night heron) is here peculiar in its character; for with us it is as large as an eagle, and its cry is harsh; but in Egypt it is the size of a jay, and has a different note.Strabo, Geography
Text scanned and modernized by J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton
