Several folks have recently posted photos in Facebook of a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) that they spotted at Huntley Meadows Park, my favorite marshland for photography, so I kept my eyes open today as I explored the park. I came up empty-handed for this particular bird, a species that I had never seen before, but as I was getting ready to leave, a helpful photographer led me to a spot where he had seen the bird earlier in the day.
Amazingly the bird was in the same general location and I was able to get several long-distance shots of the gangly little bird, which seems to be bigger than the Green Herons in the park, but smaller than the Great Blue Herons. As far as I know, nobody has seen an adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the park, so we don’t really know how this juvenile happens to be in this location.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Nice. The only herons you see around southern Arizona are blue herons — not too often, though.
That park is a place that seems to just keep on giving. You’ve seen such an amazing array of wildlife there!
We seem to be in a good location to catch birds migrating though the area going north and south, as well as birds that visit from the relatively nearby Potomac River. There is an avid birder group that keeps weekly counts of birds too and I think that over 200 species have been spotted at one time or another in the park.
Nice!!! Kisses ❤ ❤ ❤
Very Nice! One of my favorite birds. They are somewhat rarer here in NJ. But 2 built a nest in a tree above a busy road near us and it was fun to see them hatch and bounce around the nest and tree. They came back for years until a utility company came and trimmed the tree and destroyed the nest.
Thanks, Reed. I occasionally encounter a Black-crowned Night-Heron, but this was a first sighting for me of the Yellow-crowned one. It is so cool when you can find a nesting spot and can observe activity over time.