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Yellow-crowned Night Herons have a presence about them when they are hunting that reminds me of Buddhist monks.  If “The greatest prayer is patience,” as the Buddha is alleged to have said, then the comparison is perhaps apt, as nothing embodies patience more than Nyctanassa violacea.  I spent forty-five minutes in the company of the Yellow-crowned [...]

It is not every day that one gets to explore Central Park with a friend, birder, and first-time visitor to the Big Apple.  It is even more odd to be birding Central Park in June, when migration has essentially wrapped up and all that is left are breeders and stragglers.  But that is what I [...]

On one of my recent visits to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge I was fortunate enough to come across a cooperative Black-crowned Night-Heron Nycticorax nycticorax very close to the blind at Big John’s Pond.  It was not the first cooperative bird I have seen there and I am sure that it won’t be the last.  Enjoy [...]

Eerie. Sinister. Unnaturally still. These are apt descriptions for those wondrous waders, the night herons. These stout birds of the genera Nycticorax and Gorsachius (Family Ardeidae) resemble feathered footballs tastefully appointed in gray and white. However, their hunched posture and nocturnal habits lend night herons a baleful mien. Adding to the night heron’s ominous aspect [...]