Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Share your knowledge. Make a difference.

Black-crowned Night Heron

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 4 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #2836 in Animals, #67687 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

The Black-crowned Night Heron

 

When the Black-crowned Night Heron courts a mate, they don't get "cold feet," they get "red feet." Once a match is made and a bond formed, their leg and lores fade to a blushing pink.

Where's my lunch?

Description 

The Black-crowned Night Heron is a stock bird. They are 2 feet tall with the bulk of their height in their bodies rather than their legs. As their name implies, they have a black crown and back. The rest of their body is covered with white or gray plumage. The bill, neck, and legs are shorter than is commonly seen on other herons and egrets. Their eyes are a distinctive red and their legs are reddish pink during breeding season and yellow during the off season.

Immature Black-crowned Night Herons have a dull gray plumage on their heads, wings and backs with pale streaked plumage on their chest and belly. Their eyes are orange rather than the distinctive red and their legs are a yellowish-green.

Black-crown Night Heron 

tail end of black-crowned night heron by minicooper93402

tail end of black-cr...

Black-crowned Night Heron 3 by black_throated_green_warbler

Black-crowned Night...

Black-crowned Night Heron 2 by black_throated_green_warbler

Black-crowned Night...

Black-crowned Night-Heron by Seabamirum

Black-crowned Night-...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night-Heron) by Arthur Chapman

Nycticorax nycticora...

Range and Habitat 

The Black-crowned Night Heron inhabits fresh and salt-water wetlands throughout the world. They can be found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. The birds residing in cooler climes are migratory but those in tropical climates are permanent residents. The wetland habitats favored by the Black-crowned Night Heron includes riparian forests, weeded swamps, grasslands and marshes. During breeding season they form large colonies and nest in protected locations such as reed beds and tall grasses along the water's edge.

Mating and Nesting 

The Black-crowned Night Heron nests in colonies. The males begin their courtship by bowing to their potential mate. Along with the bowing, they rock from foot to foot, hiss, clap their bills, and stretch. Once a pair is formed, they spend time preening each other and using their bill to massage their mate's back, neck, and head.

The pair work together to build their nest. It's a flimsy structure of sticks, reeds, and twigs. It's usually placed 15 to 30 feet off the ground, just below the canopy. That way they have a better chance of spotting approaching predators.

The female will lay 3 to 5 pale blue eggs. The clutch is incubated for 24 to 26 days will both parents sharing the responsibility. The newly hatched young are fed by regurgitation. As they grow regurgitation is replace with smaller whole prey.

Around 3 weeks after hatching, the young are climbing out of the nest and exploring the nearby branches. They are a noisy brood and with other nests nearby, they can create quite a racket.

The young fledge around 6 weeks of age, but do not acquire their adult plumage for another year, and may not breed for another year or two after that.

Raising the young is often a community effort.

Nesting in large flocks, adults will often loose track of their nest. Rather than panic, they brood whatever chicks they come across.

Diet 

The Black-crowned Night Heron feeds on aquatic invertebrates such as fish, lizards, frogs, and snakes. They will stand quietly, still as stone, and wait for its prey to move into range. They are opportunistic feeders and if there are nests of terns and gulls nearby, they will make a meal of the chicks. When in the grasslands they stalk rodents such as voles and mice.

Beauty in Flight

The Black-crowned Night Heron would drive a strict schoolmarm crazy. When at rest its shoulders are hunched forward as if trying to disguise its height

Black-crowned Night Heron 

YouTube thumbnail
Black-Crowned Night-Heron

Runtime: 2:12 | 482 views | Comments

YouTube thumbnail
Controversial Black Crowned Ni...

Runtime: 3:28 | 340 views | Comments

YouTube thumbnail
Black-crowned night heron catc...

Runtime: 0:30 | 301 views | Comments

Voice 

The Black-crowned Night Heron is a noisy bird with a loud, harsh squawk.

I may be young but like all teenagers, I know what I'm doing.

Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia 

Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia: A Guide to Field Identification (Princeton Field Guides)

Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 12/05/2008)Buy Now

Shorebirds of North America, Europe, and Asia is divided into two sections for easy use. The first section shows the shorebirds in standard poses and the second shows them in flight. I prefer this field guide to the others because shorebirds rarely stay still long enough to identify them. With flight illustrations I have a better chance at identifying them.

South Carolina Birder 

South Carolina Birder offers information on wild birds as well as an insight into birding in South Carolina.

Loading Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Audubon masterpieces 

Audubon's masterpieces: 150 prints from the Birds of America

Amazon Price: (as of 12/05/2008)Buy Now

John James Audubon spent a lifetime documenting the behavior of, and drawing the birds. Audubon Masterpieces is a collecton of 150 of his best works.

Shorebirds and Waders 

101 Ways to Help Birds 

101 Ways to Help Birds

Amazon Price: $15.56 (as of 12/05/2008)Buy Now

101 Ways to Help Birds offers 101 ways for individuals to help birds and bird populations as a whole, and it explains how these actions make a difference. Any bird lover knows that birds and animals alike need our help. Without it, we will lose more and we've lost enough as it is.

What is your favorite bird and when did you last see it? 

naturegirl7 wrote...

Welcome to the Naturally Native Squids group. Don't forget to add your lens links to the appropriate plexos and vote for them.

ReplyPosted October 25, 2008

JaguarJulie wrote...

That is another really attractive bird! Love the deep bluish-gray color that I see on one of them. You make your bird lenses with such a loving hand!

ReplyPosted October 24, 2008

Why Birds Do That 

Why Birds Do That: 40 Distinctive Bird Behaviors Explained & Photographed

Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 12/05/2008)Buy Now

Birds are fascinating. Their behavior is complex, often comical. Some sing while others do not. Why Birds Do That explains forty distinctive bird behaviors and is enhanced with numerous photographs. It is a must have book for both the backyard bird watcher as well as the avid birder.

Resources used to construct this page. 

Dunn, J.L. & Alderfer, J., Editors. 2006. National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition. National Geographic Society.

Peterson, T.P. & Peterson, V.M. 2002. Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Fifth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, N.Y.

Bird Guide: Black-crowned Night Heron, Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology
Fact Sheet: Black-crowned Night Heron
Smithsonian National Zoological Park
X
ElizabethJeanAllen

About ElizabethJeanAllen

We live close to the beach so we're down their often. It doesn't matter what season, there are always shorebirds to see.

Have a beautiful day and don't forget to Say Something Nice to someone along the way.

Lizzy


ElizabethJeanAllen's Pages

See all of ElizabethJeanAllen's pages

X

Gold Star

This is a certified gold star lens, which means it's the best of its kind on Squidoo (or shows some serious potential for getting there!)

Read more about gold stars »

X

ElizabethJeanAllen is a Giant Squid!

Giants are distinguished by their exceptional skill for making top-notch lenses, and lots of them. Whenever you land on a Giant Squid's lens, you know the person behind it is passionate about the topic and is hard at work making the lens worthy of your time and attention.

Learn more about what it takes to be a Giant »

X

Happy holidays!

The red bow is special. Whenever you see a red bow on a Squidoo page, it means the page is raising money for charity.

Buy something from the page, and we'll automatically make a donation to charity, thanks to you.