You never know when something new and unforeseen is going to drop in, but that’s what keeps you going back outside. My back yard is small. Not tiny, but small. There isn’t a lot of lawn, and there isn’t any water apart from the pool, which is completely surrounded by a rather inhospitable (to birds) fence. So to see a wading bird, other than an ibis, strutting around the back yard like it owns the place is a bit of a surprise. So imagine my surprise the other morning when I spotted this Yellow-crowned Night-Heron doing just that.
Night-herons aren’t entirely nocturnal, but they are more active at night than most other herons, hence their common name. They are mostly a coastal species, found more frequently along the Intracoastal Waterway than inland, but they do cruise the nearby canals. They nest in colonies; the closest one that I’m aware of is over at Spanish River Park, several miles away. A coastal bird, they eat mainly crustaceans, but also enjoy lizards, insects, and worms, among other things, from time to time.
I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled to see what else might drop in.
Late June I awoke to find three Night-Herons standing around my Koi pond. One was preparing to consume a frog it had plucked from among the rocks.
Thank you for your post as I had not previously been able to identify them.