The black-crowned night heron’s name is self explanatory. This bird has a black crown, which is the upper part of its head. The body is covered with grey and cream coloured feathers.
Its legs and neck are short, but thick. They have an overall length of around 65 cm and a weight of roughly 800 g. The eyes are large and ruby red.
As their name suggests, these are nocturnal birds that stay hidden in the thick leaf cover of trees during daytime and set out to hunt at dusk.
These birds build their nests in colonies, especially in fresh or salt-water wetlands. Around their nests, they are very noisy, making a kind of quok or wok sound.
They would wait in shallow water, sitting with water up to the belly, for prey to get close. Small fish, shelled creatures, frogs, aquatic insects, small mammals or birds can constitute a delicious dinner for the black-crowned night heron.
These birds are very common throughout India, in Europe, Africa and the Americas.