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Black-crowned Night Heron

Nycticorax nycticorax

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns
Black-crowned Night Heron, photographed by Frank Schulenburg

Photo: Frank Schulenburg · Wikimedia · CC-BY-SA 3.0 (licence)

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Call and song

About the Black-crowned Night Heron

Stocky heron with neck usually tucked in. Adults overall pale grayish with black cap and back. Red eyes. Juveniles noticeably different, brown and streaky with yellow eyes. Often crouched under overhanging branches during the day. Feeds nocturnally for fish, frogs and other prey. Where it overlaps with Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, note large teardrop-shaped white spots on wing coverts which Yellow-crowned lacks.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 210 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.

More herons, egrets, and bitterns