European birds    Bird names   News   Family groups 1-26    Glossary    Plumage    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Credits    Photos for sale   
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14 15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   V   W   Y  

5

Black-crowned Night Heron

(Nycticorax nycticorax)
Alternate name(s): "Night Heron"
German name(s): "Nachtreiher"

Size: 58-65 cm; wing span 1.05-1.15 m
Weight: 380-900 g

Similar
species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description

Click here for a physical description

Taxonomy, classification

See Black-crowned Night Heron at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species

Click here for information on habitat and range

Sightings

Click here for sighting information

Photos

Race "nycticorax"

ADULT

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal view of a resting Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Badajoz, Badajoz province, Spain, June 2019]

Frontal view of an adult Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Close-up near-frontal view of a resting Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Badajoz, Badajoz province, Spain, June 2019]

Near-frontal view of a Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral portrait of a Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Badajoz, Badajoz province, Spain, June 2019]

Lateral view of a Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of D. Wilczynska)
[Near Oristano, western Sardinia, Italy, June 2016]

Lateral view of a Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Dorsal view of a Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Near-lateral view of a Black-crowned Night Heron in gliding flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Dorsal view of an adult Black-crowned Night Heron, top, with a second-summer immature bird, bottom - note the young bird's brownish-grey upperparts where the adult is black (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo River estuary, Portugal, February 2017]

Near-dorsal view of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Lateral view of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron in flight, wings down (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Lateral view of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron in flight, wings up (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron in flight (photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Tejo estuary, Portugal, July 2019]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Apr? - Oct? Eggs: 3 - 5 Incubation period: 21 - 22 days Fledging age: 42 - 49 days

Black-crowned Night Herons are colonial breeders. The timing of the breeding season depends on geographic latitude. In the southern parts of their breeding range Black-crowned Night Herons can have 2 broods per season.

Nest building: Male Incubation: Female & male Dependent care: Female & male

Nest

Type: Basket Material: Sticks, rushes, reeds Height above ground: ?

Frontal/ventral view of a Black-crowned Night Heron near its nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Frontal/ventral view of a preening Black-crowned Night Heron near its nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Black-crowned Night Heron of very different appearance in their nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Black-crowned Night Heron of very different appearance in their nest (photo courtesy of P. Brown)
[April 2019]

Eggs

Size: 50 x 37 mm Colour: Matt light-grey Shape: Elliptical

Behaviour

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron using its camouflage cryptic plumage to hide in waterside vegetation
(photo courtesy of J. Pires)
[Mora, Evora, Portugal, September 2019]

Food, Diet

All egrets and herons prey on aquatic creatures in fresh water or estuaries (fish, frogs, snakes or crustaceans).

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

nheron_jp_20201024.m4a nycticorax
(Portugal)
Contact calls(?) © JP

More Black-crowned Night Heron sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site?
If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.