The black-crowned night heron has four subspecies. N. n. nycticorax, the nominate subspecies, is found in Europe, Asia and Africa. I've seen it twice previously, a juvenile in the Okavango Delta of Botswana and a number of them in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Yesterday I saw the subspecies N. n. hoactli for the first time, found in North America down to northern Argentina and Chile in South America. I was visiting the Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR, unit one, and feeling kind of sad that I was not seeing many birds. The man-made marshes I'd seen previously were dry black dirt. But then I spotted a heron near a small canal and it flew as I tried to get closer to it.
A little later I turned a corner around some cattails and saw two together and got pictures of one of them flying.
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| This heron was about 15 yards from the other one. |
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| This other heron was behind and I got photos of it as it took off and flew. The lack of light makes the flight photos mostly outlines. |
They get their name from their largely nocturnal feeding habits. I saw them early in the morning, just shortly after sunrise.
Those red eyes are a bit creepy.
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