Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This Yellow-crowned Night Heron was just posing there at Largo Nature Park waiting to be photographed. There were three or four of us just snapping away and he didn't move a bit.

Several people from one of my Meetup groups were going to a shoot at this park, and since I haven't shot any nature photos with my new camera and lens, I thought I'd tag along. It was lucky that we came upon this usually very skittish bird.

We had a great time with the exception of the Mosquitoes. None of us thought to bring bug spray. Well, I had some in the car, but didn't want to loose track of the crowd and it was a long walk back. It was kind of foolish that we didn't think of it, especially when we all knew that the area was flooded. Tampa Bay had 2 weeks of bad weather and the ground is soaked. That'll teach us!

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron was taking advantage of the low tide to hunt for his evening meal in Tampa Bay in Safety Harbor, Florida.

As their name implies, they normally hunt at night, but this guy must've been really hungry or wanted to nest early.

Unlike the Black-crowned Night Heron, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron feeds mainly on crabs and crayfish. They can be seen foraging around near dusk when other Herons are well on their way to roost.

Night Herons differ from other Herons because they do not roost in colonies. They prefer to find their own private corner.

Because they're nocturnal, these birds are more skittish than most; but I find that when they're looking around for food they don't really care about anyone. They only concentrate on one thing, and that's finding their next meal. It is during that time that I find I can get pretty close to them, if I stay low and move slowly.

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

After some searching on the internet to find out the difference between an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron and an immature Black-crowned Night Heron, I've decided that this must be an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

It seems they look very similar in the wild, and if the two species are not together, then it's very hard to tell them apart. They both have white speckled bodies and faces, their eye color is the same, and their bill and leg colors are the same. So, how did I tell the difference when only one species is present? I guess knowing little details would make it an educated guess. According to all the sources I'd seen on the net and in my books, the only way to tell the difference is by looking at the color of their plumage and the length of their legs and stoutness of their bills.

My most trusted source is the Field Guide to Birds (Eastern Region) by the National Audubon Society. According to their book, young Yellow-crowned Night Herons are grayer, with stouter bills and longer legs than the young Black-crowned Night Herons. Since colors can be deceiving depending on the light cast, and I couldn't compare the legs, all I had to go on was the stoutness of the beak. Lucky for me, the Field Guide to Birds also has photos of both species. I matched up the beak, and made a definitive identification. This is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Yup; another bird shot. I'm on a roll with these right now. When I visited Lake Seminole Park with my students, I couldn't believe all the birds we shot. This is one of the better shots I made.

This one, a Yellow-crowned Night Heron just kept right on posing for us only moving once. We first shot him/her when she was on the footbridge, then in an effort to get away (sort of) he/she flew down on the ground on the edge of the water. I think he wasn't giving up his spot for lunch, no matter what we did.

It's always a thrill to see and capture one of these elusive Night Herons. Since they're largely nocturnal, we don't get to see them too much during the day. When we do, they're pretty secretive. The only time they show themselves is when they're hungry, so it's usually a pretty easy shot. They don't give up their spots that easily just because we humans are there. They want to be sure to keep all the Crab for themselves.

Settings used for this shot were: Aperture Priority Mode with partial metering on the bird, ISO 400 for extra light sensitivity because I was shooting him under a bridge and it was a cloudy day. There wasn't much light to work with, 1/20th at F5.6 and -1/3 exposure compensation to keep the whites from blowing out. Focal length 208mm with my 55-250mm lens.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This Yellow-crowned Heron was wading in the shallows looking for food when I spotted him during low tide in the Safety Harbor Marina in Safety Harbor, FL.

Yellow-crowned Herons are not nearly as common as Black-crowned Herons in this area. Yet, I've seen many more Yellow-crowned than Black-crowned Herons. It is pretty easy to tell the difference between the two. The Yellow-crowned Heron has a white or yellow crown with a white stripe just under his eye. The Black-crowned Heron has a black crown, but the rest of his face is white. They are about the same size and their feeding habits are similar. They are both active during the evening and night hours as their name suggests. Both are resident in Florida.

Since they both are active during the night, it's always a treat to see them during the day. This one was spotted just after sunset. Unlike the Black-crowned Heron, this species preys mainly on crabs and crayfish and they tend to be loners, not nesting with other Herons.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This Yellow-crowned Night Heron, taken in Safety Harbor at the Marina, is wading through the muck at low tide looking for his favorite meal. They love crabs and crayfish.

These Herons stalk their prey and are mainly nocturnal. They are also secretive and are rarely seen, but not as shy as their cousin, the Green-backed Heron.

It's always a thrill to see and photograph these birds. In Florida, the Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons are used to people and allow us to get pretty close to photograph them, but the Black and Yellow-crowned Herons, the Reddish Egrets and especially the Green-backed Herons are much more shy and therefore much harder to get close enough to photograph them.

This particular Heron is so attuned to finding dinner that he didn't pay any attention to me. One thing to be careful of when photographing any birds is that you don't disturb them. I try using the longest lens I have, staying down low and moving ever so slowly. As I close in on them, I fire off a couple of shots then move a bit closer and keep repeating this action. It lets them see that whatever I'm doing isn't hurting them. If a bird seems to be stressed, I move away and find another that isn't so timid. It's best not to stress them out too much. I can always get another shot at another time. There are so many sea birds in Florida, on any given day, I can usually find more than my fill to photograph.