Abstract:

Ardeidae bird is one of important species belonging to wet land ecosystem, and regarded as indicator for environmental assessment. In order to protect and utilize the resources, Egrets are studied from China in this paper. There are 9 genus and 20 species in the family Ardeidae in China, respectively, which are divided into nesting in tree and nesting in reed beds ecology form. Egrets community structure diversity is influenced by the complexity of habitat structures, plant diversity, forest level and vertical structures and so on. Bitterns community diversity is low because of simple rest structure. Ixobrychus eurhythnus is palaearctic, Gorsachius magniticus, G. m. mloanolophus are Oriental, and others are Iosmopolitan in China.

Key words: Ardeidae, species diversity, habitat environment, life habit, geography distribution, bird