THE BIRDS
BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON. Nycticorax nycticorax naevius
(Boddaert)
Field
characters.Considerably smaller than Great Blue Heron, and
with noticeably shorter legs and neck. Prevailing coloration of body and
wings light gray; under surface whitish; top of head and back greenish
black. (There are usually two or three long slender plumes, 1/8 inch
wide, extending backward from crown of head to middle of back.) Young
birds are streaked all over with light and dark brown. Flight slow,
direct, with deliberate wing beats. Voice: A sharp harsh
squawk.
Occurrence.Thinly
scattered as a resident west of foothills. Frequents vicinity of water
and roasts and nests in trees near by. Seen at Snelling May 26, 1915,
and near Lagrange, December 14, 1915, and May 8, 1919.
Black-crowned Night Herons are resident in small
numbers along the Merced and Tuolumne rivers below their exit from the
foothills. The harsh-voiced notes of the birds, of frequent utterance
during the night when they are active, have given them the common name
of "squawk." Like most other herons they get their food from the margins
of ponds and sluggish streams. The birds roost throughout the day in
concealment, congregated in dense willow thickets, whence they issue
forth at dusk to forage singly over the surrounding bottomlands.
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