What they like

Peace and reeds. Ditches, pools, marshy copses and reedbeds where you don’t see them during the day. Make it easy for them: leave a wide shoreline strip messy, with reeds, cattails and willow scrub. No neatly mown edges right down to the water. In a park: let a corner of the pond go wild. On your property: keep a pond or wet ditch open, with rough vegetation around it. In agricultural areas: choose wet buffer strips and bands of reeds along ditches.

Ecological importance

A night worker with a clear job: they hunts fish, frogs and aquatic insects. That helps keep aquatic life in balance. He’s also on the menu themself: eggs and young are taken by crows and predators if there’s no good cover. So: dense shoreline vegetation = higher survival.

When in the Netherlands

All year round... During the day they hides, by dusk the action starts.

Status

Rare breeding bird. Present locally, vulnerable due to loss of quiet, wet habitat.