Yellow-crowned Night Heron

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iYellow-crowned Night Heron

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ardeidae
Genus:	Nycticorax
Species:	N. violaceus

Binomial name

Nycticorax violaceus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax violaceus, is a smaller heron, similar in appearance to the Black-crowned Night Heron.

Adults are 61 cm long and weigh 625 g. They have a white crown and back with the remainder of the body greyish, red eyes and short yellow legs. They have a white stripe below the eye. Juveniles resemble young Black-crowned Night-Herons, being mainly brown flecked with white or grey.

Their breeding habitat is swamps and marshes in the eastern United States to north-eastern South America. They often nest in colonies, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs overhanging water. they lay 3-5 pale blue-green eggs.

In warmer locations, some are permanent residents; others migrate to Central America and the West Indies. They may occasionally wander north to the lower Great Lakes or Ontario after the breeding season.

A related heron was endemic to Bermuda, but became extinct following human colonisation. American yellow-crowned night herons have been introduced to fill its ecological niche.

These birds stalk their prey or stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night. They mainly eat crustaceans, mollusks, frogs, aquatic insects and small fish.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Nyctanassa violacea. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
A guide to the birds of Costa Rica by Stiles and Skutch ISBN 0-8014-9600-4