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.
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