I remember sitting on the dock until dusk, watching the beach slip into night. Groups of seagulls were flying back to their nests on the bay.
One of the only birds that was coming out was the black crowned night heron.
My Mom called them "gentleman-birds", because of the way they stood.
That is partially why I'm writing this article. I wanted to find out more about these mysterious birds.

The Black Crowned Night Heron, Nyticorax Nyticorax, is about 23-24 inches in length. Unlike its counterparts the great blue heron and the snowy egret, the night heron is stockier with a short thick neck and short legs. It has a black crown and back with dark gray-blue wings and white under parts. It has a short black beak and yellow to pinkish legs. Its important head features are red eyes and two or more white plumes off the back of its head during the breading season. The younger birds have gray-brown plumage with white spots.

Black Crowned Night Herons usually appears at dusk and stays out till dawn. Some neat facts about them.
Eats mostly fish and also crabs and amphibians.
The night heron will perch on jetties or grassy areas. It will mostly go after fish 6-9 inches in length.

While hunting it stays perfectly still and waits for its prey to swim by.
Like most herons and egrets it extends its neck and uses its sharp bill to catch its food.
Black Crowned Night Herons flip the fish up and swallow it whole. Later on gets rid of the scales shells and bones.

The Black Crowned Night Heron nests in trees, marshes, and brush. The nest is usually a platform of twigs with a hollow of reeds and phragmites. The nest is 24 inches wide and 18 inches high. The male begins the building and then will bring supplies for the female so she can give the nest her own touch. Upon completion the female lays 3-4 pale greenish-blue eggs. Both parents take turns incubating the eggs and after 24-26 days they hatch. 4 weeks later they young are feathered. During the next 2-3 weeks the young leave the nest and at 6 weeks they can fly. To the right is a picture of an young heron.

The black crowned night heron's breeding season is in early April.
During this time the birds grow 2 or more plumes from the back of their head.

The range of these birds is anywhere near marshes, swamps, and wooded streams
in the continental United States except for the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains.

PLEASE!
Preserve and Protect our Beaches.

TOP PHOTO: ©; Tom Davis, 2004 , http://www.geometer.org

Thanks to Mary Ellen Hackett, No 3 / 2003
Mary Ellen was in the 10th grade at Babylon High School when this article written

@ 2007 Save the Beaches Fund, Inc.

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