Tree-top nesting

Yellow-crown Night Herons are found throughout Florida, but we don’t often see them actually nesting in our local wetlands. This spring, however, there were three different breeding pairs nesting high up over the mile-long boardwalk! “Nests are constructed by both birds, but it is more the case that the male gathers sticks and the female […]

Same Night Herons or not??

We have both Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and Black-crowned Night Herons in our wetlands. These first two photos below show an adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron (l.) and a Black-crowned Night Heron (r.). These Night Herons look quite distinctly different from one another as adults, as can be seen. The juveniles below, however, look much more similar […]

Motionless in the shadows (well, most of the time)

Rather solitary and secretive, according to Audubon, Yellow-crowned Night Herons are frequently spotted hiding in the Cypress trees surrounding the ‘Alligator Hole’ at our local wetlands at this time of year. Although ‘their range extends inland as far as the Midwest’ U.S.(All About Birds), the Yellow-crowned Night Herons are year-round residents of Florida, nesting and […]

A few ‘Percolation pond’ residents

The Wakodahatchee Wetlands is a unique “constructed wetlands” in Delray Beach, Florida, and one of the places I go birding and blog about most often. “Each day, the Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility pumps approximately two million gallons of highly treated wastewater into the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, which in turn acts as a percolation pond, returning billions of […]

Birds of a feather . . .sort of

As I turned a corner on a recent walk, I was surprised by this juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron above, sitting on a branch so close I could almost imagine reaching out to touch him! We have two different Night Herons here in southeast Florida, the Black-crowned and the Yellow-crowned Night Herons. The juveniles can be difficult to tell […]

Just hanging out with the visitors

I’ve written several previous posts about the wonderful Yellow-crowned Night Herons we have in our local preserves. At this time of year, these special birds like to frequent a small wooded area along the boardwalk. At first, you might not see any, as they are amazingly well-camouflaged. But little by little, they come into view, and you may soon […]

“A Little Night Heron”

There’s a well-shaded pond (referred to as the “Alligator Hole”) where we can catch a glimpse of the Night Heron families each year, sitting up in the Cypress trees. There are both Yellow-Crowned Night Herons and Black-Crowned Night Herons here in our preserves. Both of these birds are large, but have shorter necks and are stockier than many of their more graceful, […]