Black-crowned night heron

Description:

This is a medium sized heron, reaching some 60 cm in height; and presented here are immature birds, presenting a mixture of adult and juvenile feathers. They are relatively stocky with shorter bills, legs, and necks than their more familiar cousins, the egrets and "day" herons; and their resting posture is normally somewhat hunched. They present grey plumage above, whitish underneath with red legs.

Habitat:

Cosmopolitan heron, here observed in mixed flocks of egrets and herons on a nesting ground and during nesting season. Nesting ground is a marsh (pic 6) in a Port Harcourt, one of the bigger towns in Nigeria.

Notes:

Mixed flocks of egrets and herons, Cattle egret and Night heron the most numerous, than Western Reef herons; and some other birds (Whistling ducks, Reed Cormorant, moorhens...)