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Project Noah Nature School
Nycticorax nycticorax
This is the only shot I got of this bird flying overhead. The second image is just a cropped and lightened version of the first to better show the wing pattern. It's brown and white with spotted underside. The legs are yellow. "Black-crowned Night Herons do not fit the typical body form of the heron family. They are relatively stocky and about 25 in tall (63 cm) with shorter bills, legs, and necks than their more familiar cousins the egrets and "day" herons. Their resting posture is normally somewhat hunched but when hunting they extend their necks and look more like other wading birds. Immature birds have dull grey-brown plumage on their heads, wings, and backs, with numerous pale spots. Their underparts are paler and streaked with brown. The young birds have orange eyes and duller yellowish-green legs." - Wikipedia
Flying over a wetland area of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. This species is "found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia. " - Wikipedia
Spotted on Jul 14, 2012
Submitted on Jul 16, 2012
4 Comments
I'm leaning toward the juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. It looks like the Yellow-crowned Night Heron isn't in the area.
Hi Ava, yes the pattern threw me off. I got lucky getting a shot at all as my camera was still in my bag when I saw something coming :)
Thank you Outdoor Imagery. I'll check out both of them when I return to my computer today :)
I'm mystified because while it looks like a heron to me too, the underwing pattern isn't how it looks in Sibley. Beautiful picture.