Order: Pelacaniformes

Family: Ardeidae

 

Size:  up to 58 - 66 cm in length

Weight: 500 to 800 g

 

Key Features: this stockily built species has short legs and a short neck, with the male, on average, being the slightly larger of the sexes. As its name suggests, the adult black-crowned night heron has a glossy, black cap that extends down the upper back, while the rest of the body plumage generally ranges from white to ashy grey. The nape is adorned with two to three long, white plumes reaching up to 25 cm in the breeding season. The stout bill is black in colour, the eyes, a piercing crimson, and the legs, yellow-green for most of the year but becoming pink during the breeding season. Juveniles are mostly brown, with heavy striping and pale spots, but as they grow towards the adult plumage, become more solidly dark above and pale below. 

 

Voice: They are very noisy birds in their nesting colonies, with calls that are commonly transcribed as quok or woc.

 

Breeding: Following copulation the female lays three to five greenish eggs, which are incubated by both parent birds for 24 to 26 days before hatching. 

 

Diet: includes small fish, crabs, crayfish, snakes, amphibians, small rodents, the chicks of other birds, insects and sometimes plant matter.

 

Habitat: Occurs in a broad range of fresh, brackish and salt-water habitats, from rivers, lakes and swamps to lagoons, mudflats, and salt-marsh. Aquatic and marginal vegetation such as reed beds, bamboo, mangroves and other trees are important for nesting and roosting.

 

Habits: Nesting occurs in large colonies, often comprising several different species, and located on islands or other suitable sites where predators pose less of a threat. During the breeding season, the male establishes a territory and typically performs a variety of displays to attract a female, including exaggerated bows that accentuate the white neck plumes, bill snapping, and twig shaking.  The young are fed on food regurgitated by the parent birds and fledge after six to seven weeks, sometimes forming small flocks, and may continue to beg for food from the adults.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Davis Jr, W.E. (1993) Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), The Birds of North America Online. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca.

 

Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.

 

Blake, E.R. (1977) Manual of Neotropical Birds, Volume 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

 

Photo Courtesy

DickDaniels, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons