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Black-crowned Night Herons are small, but long-legged herons. They have a creamy frons, creamy supercilia and throat, while the rest of the front is light-grey. The crown is blue-grey. The light-grey colour of their neck band extends to the nuchal plumes at the nape of the neck. The mantle is blue-grey, while the outer wing coverts and the flight feathers are grey. Their irises are brown. The strong bill is dark-grey, with yellowish-grey lores. The legs and feet are yellow to greyish-yellow, during courtship often pale-red. Juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons have more cryptic plumage than adults, with duller colours. Their front is light grey-brown, with some streaking on the sides of the neck. The crown and mantle are grey-brown, rather than blue-grey, and the wing feathers are grey-brown with a slightly scalloped pattern.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Black-crowned Night Heron is available HERE .

There are four different races of Black-crowned Night Herons, which are a global, partly migratory species. They are found on all continents, except Australia (where they are replaced by the similar Rufous [Nankeen] Night Heron) and Antarctica. The northern populations are migratory, while the southern populations, even in cold climates, are sedentary. Nominate race "nycticorax" is found permanently in most of Africa, except the Sahara desert and much of south-western Africa, along the north-western African coastal fringe, the Nile river catchment and on into the Sinai and via the Middle East to southern Asia Minor. There is a second permanent population on the Indian subcontinent and almost all of South-east Asia, up to southern China, and in southern-most South Korea and Japan. On some South-east Asian islands there are wintering populations only. During the northern summers these populations extend their breeding range into parts of southern to central Europe, temperate central Asia and into much of eastern China, all of the Korean peninsula and Japan. Surprisingly, there is a wintering population on Hokkaido, taking advantage of hot volcanic waters. The other three races are found in the Americas (for details see, e.g., Wikipedia ).

In Arabia Black-crowned Night Herons are found as breeding migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Their breeding range extends mostly around the coastal fringe, but they are also present in inland areas of Saudi Arabia, such as e.g. around Riyadh.

In Oman Black-crowned Night Herons populate suitble wetlands in much of the coastal fringe, both along the North coast, from Musandam to Ras al-Hadd, and along parts of the West coast.

Black-crowned Night Herons are usually found in well-vegetated wetlands around lakes, but also reedbeds and other dense vegetation along creeks and in swamps. Sometimes they are also found in wetlands with brackish and saline water, such as estuaries.

Race "nycticorax"