Family:
The night-heron, also known as the black-crowned night heron and the black-capped night heron, is a large stocky heron with a short neck and legs, and a short dagger-like bill. In breeding plumage it has black upperparts, with grey wings, and pale grey underparts. On the head, the crown is black, the forehead and cheek are white, and it has long white plumes on its nape that are erected during courtship displays. Its bill is black, the eyes are red, and the feet and legs are red. Males and females are alike except the female is slightly smaller and she has shorter plumes on the nape.
Out of breeding plumage, the upperparts and black cap are duller, it loses its plumes, and the legs turn yellow.
Like other herons, when resting the night-heron’s posture is hunched but during flight it extends its neck to look more like other wading birds. It is most active and dusk and tends to stay hidden in foliage during the day.
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Night-herons are opportunistic feeders and eat fish, leeches, worms, insects, crustaceans, squid, amphibians, reptiles, snakes, rodents, birds and their eggs, carrion, plant matter, and rubbish from landfills.
It has been observed throwing edible and inedible objects into water to lure or distract fish, in a rare example of tool use among birds.
Night-herons have a wide range breeding in North and South America from Canada to Argentina and Chile, as well as in central and southern Europe, and western, eastern, and southern Africa. Northern birds are migratory moving south to the winter to Mexico, the Caribbean, southern Asia, and tropical Africa.
They can be found in swamps, streams, rivers, marshes, mudflats, mangroves, and by lakes with thick vegetation.
