Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Pastel pencils on Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White paper

This heron species had been on my want-to-have list for a while, both for photographing and for painting, the Black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). I can check this off my list now.

It is one of the smaller herons, around 62 cm. A long, long time ago they existed in large colonies also in the Netherlands. But nowadays they are rare in the Netherlands, with only about 35 breeding pairs.

Both sexes look the same with a black crown, bright red eyes, a black-green bluish back, a grayish belly and wing feathers. During courtship, the males have a pair of beautiful white neck feathers. You can also see that the legs change color from yellow to pink during the breeding season.

During this breeding season, they often live in mixed colonies with other night herons, as well as with other species of herons and cormorants. The female is the one who usually does the breeding, but the male also sometimes does this. Strangely they sometimes even breed on the nests of other night herons nearby. In hot weather, they wet the wings and cool the eggs so that they do not overheat.

The night heron is called in Germany Nachtreiher. Both German and English names refer to the hunting behavior: they hunts mainly at night. They have a typical heron way of hunting, both wading and standing still with harpoon-like outliers. Mainly fish is on the menu, but in fact everything that is manageable will do. Frogs, salamanders and insects are also not safe.

📸 by me, Zoo Diergaarde Blijdorp, Rotterdam

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