Yellow-crowned Night-heron

About the Yellow-crowned Night-heron

A stocky, elegant heron with a smoky blue-gray body and a boldly patterned black-and-white face, the Yellow-crowned Night-heron takes its name from the creamy crown that trails back into slender plumes on breeding adults. Shorter-necked and stouter than the day-herons, it has a deliberate, watchful poise all its own.

True to its name, it is most active at dusk and after dark, stalking slowly along wooded shorelines, marsh edges, and coastal flats. It is a crustacean specialist, hunting crabs and crayfish and crushing them in its heavy bill.

In Texas the Yellow-crowned Night-heron is a warm-season breeder inland - sometimes nesting in trees in shady neighborhoods, well away from water - and can be found year-round along the coast, where crabs are plentiful.

A note from behind the lens: dawn and dusk are prime, when the birds are active and the light is soft. Find a bird working a shoreline or a tidal flat, get low for an eye-level angle, and watch for the moment it seizes and manipulates a crab - a classic behavioral frame.