Yellow-crowned night heron
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
The yellow-crowned night heron is a southeastern relative of the more widely distributed black-crowned night heron. Yellow-crowns are especially fond of mangroves, and most of these images were taken in mangrove forests or close to them. Adults are strikingly marked; juveniles are brownish and streaked, quite similar to juvenile black-crowned night herons. Their large eyes give excellent night vision (and also reflect bright red when illuminated by electronic flash). These were resting in mangroves or on mudflats or floating logs at the Ding Darling refuge on Sannibel Island, Florida, the nearby Estero Lagoon, and in Corkscrew Swamp sanctuary.
