Literally, “yellow bittern”; however, it is unlikely to refer to the bird known in English as the yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis), which is native to Central and East Asia and unknown in Ireland. Dictionaries gloss bonnán buí (and bonnán léana(literally “water-meadow bittern”)) simply as “bittern”, but it probably refers specifically to the common, Eurasian or great bittern (Botaurus stellaris), which was common in Ireland until the mid-19th century.[1]
