The Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax By: Joshua Scientific Classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum:   Chordata Class:      Aves Order:     Chordata Family:   Aredeidae Genus:    Nycticorax species:   nycticorax

Natural History

A bird is known to be a pretty popular and interesting creature. Its beautiful wings, soft feathers and narrow beak make it a bird. There are millions of birds and many different species found all across the world. The Aredeidae family is one of them. The species nycticorax belong to this family. One of the birds that belongs to this family is the black-crowned night heron. This bird is known for its long plumes and is known to be noisy. It lives in wetlands such as swamps, ponds, lakes and oceans. Its prey consists of things like fish, frogs or small mammals, and sometimes it eats other colonial-nesting water birds.

It lives in different areas of the western hemisphere such as South and North America, Canada, Mexico, the Texas Gulf region and eastern portions of the United States.

It’s known to be an excellent fisher and hunter, and eats a lot, as most birds do. One of the habits that it has is that it flies around with its head hunched between it’s shoulders. That's one way it can be recognized.  Some people consider the black-crowned night heron a legend. Way back in the tenth century an emperor in China cherished it so much that he gave it a place in his court, and nicknamed it the Go-i.

Habitat

The black-crowned night heron probably looks familiar to you because it is found all over the United States, including Maine. It’s also found in different areas of the Western hemisphere such as North and South America, Eurasia, Africa and the Texas Gulf region.

During the winter it migrates all over the New England states. It’s a breeding resident of the Texas Gulf coast. It nests around wooded swamps, ponds, lakes, tropical mangroves and fields. It likes to keep close to the water and vegetation such as reeds, trees and mangroves, where it roosts and takes cover, and the water where they hunt.

The black-crowned night heron is a colonial nester, which means it nests in colonies, usually in small colonies and mixed colonies with other species. It nests in trees and sometimes on the ground. It starts it’s nesting in March and can continue until June.

The nests are usually made with piles of reeds, sticks and twigs, and usually turns out beautiful. It might not look safe and sturdy, but it is. We shouldn’t judge books by their cover or the black-crowned night heron by its appearance, because it has some fascinating and interesting characteristics you might not think it has.

Present Status: The black-crowned night heron is a threatened species in Maine. It could become endangered if we don’t put some of the destruction to a stop.

Physical Description

Some people describe birds as beautiful and remarkable creatures. Others might decribe them as hideous and boring. I think that a bird is an awesome creature. Their bill, wings, eyes, and soft feathers make them unique. The feathers on birds’ bodies are grown from the outer layer of the skin. The feathers on a bird consist of three main parts: the quill, which is the hollow stem of the feather and is connected to the rachis; the rachis, which supports the vane; and the vane, which is the flat, soft part of a feather, and gives the bird accuracy in flight. The colors of the wings depend on the form of the cells and tissues. The color of the wings aren’t often changed by the bird’s diet. 

Birds have very small and hollow bones, but some birds like the loon have solid bones, which gives it more strength for swimming.  The black-crowned night heron has light bones and has no trouble flying. It is a vertebrate and is warm blooded. It has a stocky body, short neck, and is known for its long plumes. Its body is about 20-28 inches long, and its wings are 45 inches long. Their wings are gray all year round. Its legs are usually a yellowish green color but change to pink during the breeding season. Its eyes are red and its bill is black, but the juvenile’s eyes are an amber color. The adult’s body is black with some white on the stomach and armpits. The juvenile’s body is brown with some white here and there, but it turns black and white when it becomes a full grown, beautiful black-crowned night heron.

Diet and Feeding Habits

Have you ever heard the expression if someone eats a lot that they eat like a cow, or the expression if someone doesn’t eat enough that they eat like a bird? Believe it or not, a bird actually eats more than a cow does. They need to consume a lot of food, which gives them energy for flying. Birds are consumers and prey.

The black-crowned night heron is an expert at catching its prey, and even though it may not take drama classes, it’s great at acting. It acts as if it is asleep, with its head nested between its shoulders, and when a sea creature comes along, it snags it.

The black-crowned night heron is a predator. It hunts alone and often shares the food. If it doesn’t get enough food to satisfy its needs then it doesn’t bother eating it. It could take it back to its shelter and store it for another time, but it considers it only as a snack.

It eats a lot of things such as suckers, herring, pickerel, eels, frogs, snakes, dragonflies, clams and other insects and fish. When a heron’s had enough of something, it digests the food. The digestive system consists of the esophagus, which is connected to the bird’s mouth, and the crop. The crop is an intestine used to store food. The gizzard, which is the bird’s second stomach, where the food from the first stomach goes, is used to grind the food. It is helpful for birds since they don’t have teeth. When the food has completely gone through this digestive process, it leaves the bird’s body through an opening called the cloaca. Now the bird is ready to start searching for more prey.

Cause of Endangerment

Have you ever thought about the way that we live and the way our habitat and community works? I have, and throughout this expedition I’ve discovered that we really do hurt these animals. If we didn’t have the animals that we have, it could mess up the function that they play in their habitat, which is niche.

There are many extinct, endangered, threatened and species of concern throughout the world. The black-crowned night heron belongs to the threatened species category in Maine. The black-crowned night heron lives around water and wetlands such as swamps, lakes, ponds, and oceans. It’s habitat is being polluted. We might not think some of these things matter but they do. It’s wetlands are being polluted and this is destroying their habitat and hunting environment. 

For example, an electric powerplant is emitting off substances like chlordane, dieldrin and aldrin, which are deadly poisons. This is causing wildlife to move away from their natural habitat, the place that one animal is edemic to, which means one paticular place it is native to. They are also being killed, because their pests at hatcheries, and they prey on the fish.

Humans are also bothering their nesting environment, by knocking them down, stepping on them and just not caring. Without safe and natural nesting, they can’t raise and take care of their young. 

If we don’t save these animals, it could have an effect on us. Our food chain could be intturupted, and if we don’t have animals to eat and those animals don’t have anything to eat, what would we eat? This would weaken our food chain, and even the whole ecosystem, and exspecially the circle of life. We should try to make a difference in our world, by keeping the environment around us clean and speaking for the animals that don’t have a voice.

Personal Essay

“We will be starting an expedition,” the teachers at King middle school announced to the students of Windsor 7. Something important, something extravagant, something that would broaden their school’s horizon: an expedition called Fading Footprints. This wasn’t the first expedition King Middle School had ever had, but it was far more interesting, and far more involved with the world surrounding them.

Bibliography

1.  Night Heron.  June 15, 2002.  http;//www.twingroves.district96.k12.Il.us/wetlands/herons/night heron/night.  (3/11/03)

2.  The city naturist. May 31, 2002. http:// www.nysite.com/nature/found/bheron.htm. . (2/23/03)

3.  Black crowned night heron. November 31, 2002. http://www.ncaudubon.org/wb-20.html. (3/27/03.)

Encyclopedia

3. “Herodutus.” Comptons, Volume 10. 1997.

Books

4. Howell, Forshaw and Stallcup, Lindsey. Birding. Australia: Sheena Coupe. 1994.

5. Watkins, Patricia, et al. Life Science. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers. 1989.