Black Crowned Night Heron Juvenile In Flight I

by Linda Brody

Title

Black Crowned Night Heron Juvenile In Flight I

Artist

Linda Brody

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Black Crowned Night Heron Juvenile In Flight.

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron in flight. Note the green and orange on the face that are characteristic of juveniles. Taken at Santa Ana Lakes, Orange County, California. November 2016 on an overcast day just before a rainstorm. A birding ground is located at Santa Ana Lakes, a series of retention basins and fishing lakes.

Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They are most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world.

Adults are approximately 25 inches long and weigh 28 ounces. They have a black crown and back with the remainder of the body white or grey, red eyes, and short yellow legs. They have pale grey wings and white under parts. Two or three long white plumes, erected in greeting and courtship displays, extend from the back of the head. The sexes are similar in appearance although the males are slightly larger. Black-crowned night herons do not fit the typical body form of the heron family. They are relatively stocky with shorter bills, legs, and necks than their more familiar cousins, the egrets and "day" herons. Their resting posture is normally somewhat hunched but when hunting they extend their necks and look more like other wading birds.

Immature birds have dull grey-brown plumage on their heads, wings, and backs, with numerous pale spots. Their underparts are paler and streaked with brown. The young birds have orange eyes and duller yellowish-green legs. They are very noisy birds in their nesting colonies, with calls that are commonly transcribed as quok or woc.

This photograph has been featured in the following Groups:
Nature Landmarks Landscapes and Wildlife
Birds in Focus
FAA Bird Portraits
Arts Fantastic World
A Birding Group - Wings
Photography and Nature 101
Coastal Water Birds - Shore Birds
Poetic Poultry
Wild Birds of the World
All Art Welcome
Monthly Themed - Water
The Road to Self Promotion
ABC Group

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Uploaded

July 17th, 2017

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