Black-crowned night herons
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
Black-crowned night herons, or closely related species of night-herons, are found around the world. The birds in these photos above are adults returning to a day roost in a cattail marsh in Palo Alto, California. Night herons are mainly nocturnal and return to their day roosts before dawn, which makes photographing them a challenge. All these images were shot with autofocusing -- there was no way my eyes could focus accurately in pre-dawn light -- and high ISO. A powerful electronic flash provided most of the illumination, and consequently all the pictures show bright reflection from the birds' large eyes.
Pictures of black-crowned night herons in brighter light can be found on this page.
