Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Description:

This is a wading bird, the females being a little smaller than the males. Per the attached Wikipedia article, and attached photos..."the body and back are a smooth grey-blue, with a black scaled pattern on the wings. The long legs are yellow and turn coral, pink or red during courtship. The most characteristic part of the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is the head: black and glossy, with white cheeks and a pale yellow crown going from the bill, between the eyes and to the back of the head, giving the bird its common name. Such colours make the face appear striped in a horizontal black-white-black-white pattern. Long, thin, white feathers grow to the back of the crown during mating season. The bill, also black, is thick and deeply set under the eyes which are dark orange or red."

Habitat:

This bird was spotted on Sanibel Island, Florida. It was wading in shallow salt water in a mangrove shore area searching for food.

Notes:

The Night Heron eats mainly crustaceans (crabs and crayfish) as well as insects, some fish or worms. Per Wikipedia, this bird has little competition for this diet, and is generally not a threatened species. It did not seem to mind our close proximity, making it easy to photograph and observe.