Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Crowned Night Herons 

usually forage by standing still or walking slowly at edge of shallow water. They may perch above water on pilings, stumps, small boats. They forage mostly from late evening through the night, avoiding competition with other heron species that use the same habitat during the day. They may feed during the day in the breeding season, when they need extra energy for nesting, or in unusual weather.

Black-crowned Night-Herons are common in wetlands across North America, including saltmarshes, freshwater marshes, swamps, streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, lagoons, tidal mudflats, canals, reservoirs, and wet agricultural fields. They require aquatic habitat for foraging and terrestrial vegetation for cover. They spend the winter in southern and coastal portions of their breeding range as well as across Mexico and Central America, where they use mangroves, marshes, swamps, lagoons, and flooded rice fields. They Nest in groves of trees, in thickets, or on ground, usually on islands or above water, perhaps to avoid predators.

Their Diet is quite variable, freshwater, and marine animals, mostly fish, but also squid, crustaceans, aquatic insects, frogs, snakes, clams, mussels, rodents, carrion, eggs and young birds, leeches, earthworms, crayfish, amphibians, lizards, and turtles.

The male chooses a nest site in a tree or in cattails, usually in a habitat safe from predators such as on an island, in a swamp, or over water. The male advertises for a mate with displays that involve bowing and raising the long plume on his head.
Black-crowned Night-Herons nest colonially, often with a dozen nests in a single tree. Colonies sometimes last for 50 years or more.

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