Black-Crowned Night-Heron

Nycticorax nycticorax

We find the Black-Crowned Night-Herons throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions. While these birds are year-round residents in many places in the western hemisphere, there are areas where they appear only in the winter or summer. Yet these birds are citizens of the globe and make homes in South America, Africa, southern Asia and Indonesia. Most of my meetings with these birds have been in southern California, but a few meetings have been in central California, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.

Today, science recognizes four subspecies of Black-Crowned Night-Heron:

N. n. nycticorax lives in central and southern Europe, northern Africa, east to Asia, and south to Java, Sulawesi, Timor and Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. Some northern breeders winter in the southern parts of this range.
N. n. hoactli lives in North, Central, and South America from southern Canada, through the USA and south as far as northern Chile and Argentina. They have been reported on the Hawaiian Islands.
N. n. obscurus lives in northern Chile and northern Argentina, south to Tierra del Fuego.
N. n. falklandicus lives on the Falkland Islands.

Often an ambush predator, these birds can sit for long periods and strike out like a flash when prey items come within range. Members of the Heron clan follow a variety of foraging styles. Similarly, Great Blue Herons and the Great Egrets are ambush predators. They remain motionless in a location watching and waiting for prey to move into striking range. Contrast this with the Snowy Egret and the Reddish Egret, who employ a very animated style of hunting. These active hunters startle their prey into view, then chase it down for capture. Black-Crowned Night-Herons are not as active as Snowy or Reddish egrets, nor are they as patient as Great Blue Herons. Theirs is a mixture of both strategies, sometimes active, and other times stealthy.

Unless they are nesting in a rookery tree somewhere nearby, I can count on finding a half-dozen of these birds roosting near my southern California home. Finding these birds elsewhere in California is common. But I have also enjoyed their company in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. My favorite meetings in Texas came during visits to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

27 Photos

**Black-Crowned Night-Heron**
*(Nycticorax nycticorax)*

**Description:**
Free bird living at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Escondido, California.
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**Date Taken:** 2012:04:29 16:20

**Location:**

San Pasqual
Escondido, California
United States
554.49 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D3X, 450 mm, f/5.6, 1/250

**File Name:** D3X2030-BlackCrownedNightHeron

© 2012 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging.com

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Pin It — **Black-Crowned Night-Heron**
*(Nycticorax nycticorax)*

**Description:**
Free bird living at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Escondido, California.
Read More

**Date Taken:** 2012:04:29 16:20

**Location:**

San Pasqual
Escondido, California
United States
554.49 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D3X, 450 mm, f/5.6, 1/250

**File Name:** D3X2030-BlackCrownedNightHeron

© 2012 Jack Daynes, shadeTree-Imaging.com

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Black-Crowned Night-Heron - Nycticorax nycticorax — **Black-Crowned Night-Heron**
*(Nycticorax nycticorax)*

**Description:**
Juvenile bird at Merced NWR, south of Merced, California.
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**Date Taken:** 2011:12:27 15:59

**Location:**

Merced NWR
Merced, California
United States
98.43 ft above sea level

**Camera Information:**
NIKON D3X, 800 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000

**File Name:** D3X5185-BlackCrownedNightHeron-Juvenile

© 2011 Jack Daynes, shadeTreeImaging.com

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