Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron Images and Information:

Nycticorax nycticorax

  • Black-crowned Night Herons are short, stocky herons with thick necks and heavy, pointed black bills.
  • Adults have soft gray plumage with a black back, red eyes and a black crown. Immature Black-crowned Night Herons are primarily brown with large white spots on the wings and blurry streaks on their underparts and have orange colored eyes.
  • They are one of the most wide spread heron species in the world and are on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
  • Preferred habit for Black-crowned Night Herons are wetlands that include fresh and saltwater marshes, streams, lakes, ponds, swamps, tidal mudflats, lagoons, rivers, reservoirs, wet agricultural fields and rivers.
  • Black-crowned Night Herons are opportunistic feeders, their diet includes insects, crayfish, clams, mussels, fish, leeches, earthworms, amphibians, lizards, snakes, turtles, rodents, birds, and eggs. They will also consume carrion.
  • Black-crowned Night Herons are colonial nesters.
  • Black-crowned Night Herons will lay 1 to 7 eggs which take 21 to 26 days to hatch. Both sexes incubate and are monogamous.
  • A group of herons can be called a “rookery”, “scattering”, “battery” and “hedge” of herons.
  • Black-crowned Night Herons can live up to 21 years.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Black-crowned Night Heron photos.

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