Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ardeidae
Genus:	Nycticorax
Species:	N. nycticorax
Binomial name
Nycticorax nycticorax (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax; Chinese: 夜鷺; pinyin: yèlù ) commonly abbreviated to just Night Heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia (where replaced by the closely related Rufous Night Heron, with which it has hybridized in the area of contact).

Description

Carrying snake, Taipei, Taiwan

Adults are approximately 64 cm (25 in) long and weigh 800 g (28 oz). They have a black crown and back with the remainder of the body white or grey, red eyes, and short yellow legs. Young birds are brown, flecked with white and grey. These are short-necked and stout herons.

Nycticorax nycticorax juvenile

Distribution

The breeding habitat is fresh and salt-water wetlands throughout much of the world. The subspecies N. n. hoactli breeds in North and South America from Canada as far south as northern Argentina and Chile, N. n. obscurus in southernmost South America, N. n. falklandicus in the Falkland Islands, and the nominate race N. n. nycticorax in Europe, Asia and Africa. Black-crowned Night Herons nest in colonies on platforms of sticks in a group of trees, or on the ground in protected locations such as islands or reedbeds. Three to eight eggs are laid.

This heron is migratory in the northernmost part of its range, but otherwise resident (even in the cold Patagonia). The North American population winters in Mexico, the southern United States, Central America, and the West Indies, and the Old World birds winter in tropical Africa and southern Asia.

Feeding

Behaviour

These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night or early morning. They primarily eat small fish, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects, small mammals and small birds. During the day they rest in trees or bushes. N. n. hoactli is more gregarious outside the breeding season than the nominate race.

Etymology

The scientific name, Nycticorax, means "night raven", and refers to this species' nocturnal habits and harsh crow-like call.

In the Falkland Islands, they are known as "quarks", which is an onomatopoeic term.

References

• "Nycticorax nycticorax". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 3.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. 2009. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/144694. Retrieved 16 May 2011. 
• Black-crowned Night Heron on Animal Diversity Web
• F. Gary Stiles & Alexander F. Skutch (1990). A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801496004. 
• James Hancock (1999). Herons and Egrets of the World. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-322725-9. 
• David Sibley (2000). The Sibley Guide to Birds. Knopf. ISBN 9780679451228. 

External links

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Black-crowned Night-Heron Information
• USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter - Black-crowned Night-Heron
• South Dakota Birds and Birding - Black-crowned Night-Heron Information and Photos
• eNature.com - Black-crowned Night-Heron
• Field Guide on Flickr
• Images and information of Black-crowned Night-Heron from Portugal