Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Medium-sized, stocky heron with gray body and brown-and-white mottled wings. Face is black and white; crown is pale yellow and sweeps back as a plume. Eyes are large and red. Bill is heavy and black. Legs and feet are yellow. Direct flight with steady, deep wing beats.
● Song:
Generally silent
● Foraging & Feeding:
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Food consists primarily of crustaceans, but also eats small fish, reptiles, amphibians, eels, insects, and mollusks; forages in open water, mud flats, and in partially submerged vegetation.
● Breeding & nesting:
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Two to eight pale blue green eggs are laid in a nest made of sticks built in a tree or occasionally on the ground; nests singly or in small colonies, sometimes with other heron species. Incubation ranges from 21 to 25 days and is carried out by both parents.
● Similar species:
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Adults are distinct; juvenile is distinguished from American Bittern by pale spotting on upperwing, red eye, lack of black neck spot, and stouter bill. Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron has larger spots, more slender, longer bill, and shorter legs.