I've previously posted on a juvenile black-crowned night heron in Botswana that gave me fits trying to identify it. But up until our recent trip to Sri Lanka, I'd never seen an adult, even though they are found throughout most of the world.
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| Black-crowned night heron in Kandy, Sri Lanka. |
In our recent trip to Sri Lanka, in a walk around the lake in downtown Kandy, we found a tree full of nesting black-crowned night herons and also saw another juvenile with its characteristic orange eyes.
The night heron, as it is commonly called in Eurasia, although Sanjay referred to them as black-crowned night herons, have a black crown and back (although they often look blue to me), red eyes, short yellow legs and feet, and the rest of the body is white or gray.
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| An adult on a nest. |
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| A couple near a nest. |
They are stocky with short bills, necks and legs. Their resting posture is hunched, but when hunting they do extend their necks.
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| A juvenile on the branch of the same tree. |
There are four subspecies, and I was again seeing Nycticorax nycticorax nycticorax, the nominate subspecies found in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Are these the birds that pooped on me in Kandy? That first picture is very nice.
ReplyDeleteProbably. You should have fond memories of them.
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