Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Description:

The yellow-crowned night-heron is a medium sized, short-legged wading bird.Adults are blue-gray with a black-and-white patterned head. The head of the adult is black with a yellow-white crown and a white cheek patch. In breeding plumage long, white streamers extend from the crown. Eye color is red in adults. The legs are yellow and turn pinkish-red on breeding adults. The bill is short, stout, and black on both adults and juveniles. The yellow-crowned night-heron flies with slow wing beats, trailing the legs behind the body.

Habitat:

Yellow-crowned night-herons hunt along the shores of tidal creeks and tide pools within salt and brackish marshes dominated by salt marsh cord grass They also wade in shallow water and mudflats in search of prey . This bird was spotted in Dallas at a business man made retention pond.

Notes:

This bird was spotted at a man made retention pond along a busy freeway in Dallas. This bird seems to have adapted well to being near humans.