The old adage is time flies for a busy person – and I’ll simply refine that a bit and state that it’s even faster when you are doing something you enjoy. Brad and I always joke that we are busier now than we were before we were retired…noting that the real difference is we aren’t tearing our hair out trying to find those evil spirits in the machine. That isn’t to say it is all stress free down here in south Texas. Some of the local birds prefer not to be seen, much less stare down the end of a large black barrel that goes clicky clicky (at least for us that haven’t made the leap to mirrorless). I am happy to report that after my rather slow start, things have really picked up as we make our way eastward from Big Bend National Park. The count sits at 200+2 which is better at this point than our previous “Average Year” attempts (link here). Ron was even able to make it down here last weekend to get his numbers jump started – he had to go back to zero degree (F) temperatures and that white fluffy stuff, ugh. We are currently at our 4th base camp which is on South Padre Island with the Mangrove Yellow Warbler on the menu. On two unsuccessful attempts so far, but plenty of days left to remedy that. Time to get to the real reason you are here, today’s featured feathered friend.
Based on the shot above, you might think that this is one of those birds mentioned earlier that prefers not to be seen – hit the jump and we’ll see if that is accurate.
The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron is a tale of two plumages. Their visibility can be greatly different dependent on their age. In their juvenile years, the YCNHs have a brown and grey dominated feathering that is laced with streaks of white. That color scheme provides them excellent cover in their preferred habitat – marsh reeds.
As you can see from the first shot, you could easily overlook them with a fast scan of the shoreline, especially when birding from the car while Linda tries to navigate traffic. Envision your favorite lap dog hanging out of the passenger window, ears pull back in the wind and its paws gripping a camera. I make no apologies for how I might look when in the throws of birding ha.
Fortunately, this juvenile decided to make it easier on me and flew to a perch on a nearby stick. When I saw it make that move I made Linda stop and let me out – just too good of a setting to pass up. In this position you can really tell the thick bill and that gorgeous blood-red eye. They will take on a completely different color pattern when they reach adulthood, but they will maintain that piercing eye that must be quite haunting for their prey.
In the juvi stage, the Yellow-Crowned can look very similar to the Black-Crowned Night Heron. They both have the same reed concealing color palette, but there are a couple of key distinctions you can use to distinguish them. The first two are relative characteristics and long-time readers of Intrigued already know my unfavorable opinion of those. They are fantastic when you have both specimens standing next to each other, less so when one isn’t in the picture. In this case, the Yellow-Crowned has very fine white streaking and spotting compared to the large tear-shaped spots of the Black-Crowned juvi. The other is my personal observation you may or may not agree with as I can’t find it officially stated anywhere. I feel that Yellow-Crowns have skinnier/smaller/rounder like heads compared to the chunkier heads of the Black-Crowned. Notice how this specimen has an almost egg shaped head where the Black-Crowned will be stockier. Again, best viewed when you have one sitting in the left hand and the other in your right hand.
Fortunately, there is a better tell that you can use in the field related to their bills. The Yellow-Crowned Night Herons have a basically all black bill. The Black-Crowned has a pale yellowish bill. Did you catch the potential confusion there? You might guess that the “Yellow”-Crowned would have the yellowish bill and the “Black”-Crowned would have the blackish coloring – if birding was easy, it probably wouldn’t be as much fun (that’s what we tell each other here at Intrigued). Some day I’ll make a post of all my birding rules, hints and acronyms we use in the field – for now, just remember Y!Y-B!B for the juvi Night Herons (for the non-programmers out there “!” is the “Not” operator.
To close out the post, let’s throw in the adulthood plumage. We were fortunate to see several juvenile and adult Yellow-Crowned Night Herons while we were exploring 8 Mile Rd on Galveston Island (with only a few funny looks from cars that passed us ha). The below specimen gives a good look at the feature it is named after, the yellow crown. It can look more white depending on the lighting – regardless, it stands in stark contrast to the black crown on the other species.
Just throwing this similar shot in as I was trying to figure out which of the two I liked better. I am leaning to the first with the plumes going up, but most of the time you see them it will be in the down position.
Will call it a post there folks. Hope you enjoyed learning about the juvenile phase of the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. Keep your eyes sharp when scanning those shorelines!
Wildlife Intrigued 
Lovely set of shots and great info, thank you. I think they appear over here from time to time, maybe one day …… 🙂
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Thank you Brian, you are quite welcome! The YCs are a really cool bird and hopefully you will get a chance to see one – there is a possibility they are they and nobody has seen them hidden in the reeds ha.
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Nice pics, Brian. Wished some of the birds around here were as “cooperative” at times. Herons in one place retreat into the reeds, like you mentioned. I always like a challenge at times photographing, but also don’t mind the occasional pass either. It’s going to be. Deep freeze up here in the Midwest Tundra soon, but sounds like a wide swath of area in the Southwest might get “kissed” by some frigid weather as well. It only snowed once that I remember when I worked in West Texas and it was more ice than snow when I worked in Louisiana. Stay warm.
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We definitely took a slice of that cold snap down here – made it to freezing overnight last night and has hovered around 40 most of the day today – not as bad as back home, but not what we want down here for sure. No snow and so far no ice down here on SPI, but unfortunately, the water temps rapidly dropped below 50 today and the Sea Turtles are being cold stunned – volunteers are watching the jetties and coastline for unconscious Turtles being washed ashore or caught in the rocks – supposed to continue for 2 more days, but fingers crossed we start warming up soon! Appreciate you coming by Jerry, take care, stay toasty and think warm thoughts!
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You got the ‘head thing’ perfect. The first thing I look for.
We have a few rookeries for YCNH and catching their mating dance is a highlight of spring. In fact there’s one in Port Royal SC, I think your timing has always been off though.
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Appreciate the confirmation on the head shape – always good to have solid field markings. I had no idea they had such an elaborate mating dance and have now added it to the “must see” list. You are right on the timings as we are typically ahead of the breeding season down here, but every once in a while we swap our destinations so the next time we head down here in the March/April timeframe I’ll make a point to check out our YCNH locations. Appreciate the expansion in my bird knowledge, take care and hopefully you are not in this ridiculous swath of cold.
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Thanks muchly… and yes we are cold ! 24 degrees right now. I’m sure this has screwed up the breeding schedules of the big herons. Now if they over lap with the Great Egrets they lose out on nesting spots. The Egrets show up in big flocks so the Great Blues are outnumbered and leave. 🥹
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I didn’t think of the scheduling impact this would cause, how intriguing. I guess the saying is true, for every action there is a reaction. Think warm thoughts Ted!
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I may need to go into my office closet and see what I have kept from living up north. Somewhere back there is a down coat 😝
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Hahahaha, dig out those mittens and snoot-boots!
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The old Bean Boots… my wife is a Mainer.
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Ah, makes sense!
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😁😁
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Gorgeous photos, the backgrounds are as delightful as the birds! Great post with birds at different ages, and very useful Y!B logic. Do get stocked up on necessisities before the weekend. If the power goes out due to ice breakage (or crazy drivers taking out power poles), you want to have all your survival gear in place.
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Thank you Sam, fortunately, the YC’s well really the Night Herons in general are incredibly accommodating photo subjects. Looks like we have successfully navigated the freeze-agedon down there. Not sure how hard you were hit up there, but we made it to the low 30s the night before last. I feel bad for the Turtles that were cold stunned this weekend. They picked up several hundred from the waters these last couple of days – we took our friends, that came down here for the weekend, to the Sea Turtle rescue facility (talk about picking a bad time to visit us ha). Tomorrow we raise anchor at SPI and move up to Port Aransas.
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They are very beautiful birds! I retired in 2016 and time seems to slide by ever faster…
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Isn’t it amazing John – I look back at all the things I used to do while still in the grind and continually ask myself how the hell I did that, kept the house up, trained for ultras and actually got sleep compared to now when I see the sun going down and still have a sheet full of things I wanted to get done. As Brad always tells me, my to-do sheets these days are filled with things I WANT to do hehehe. Thanks for coming by – hope you didn’t get impacted by the cold front that nipped us down here in south Texas.
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No effects from those storms, they were north and east. 63 tomorrow and 72 this weekend! It’s almost 8PM and I am heading to bed… My how time has changed me…
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Don’t worry John, time changes all – I used to bounce, now I splat ha. Glad the storms missed you, we got hit harder than I wanted down south – spent way too many days in coats during our migration there. In fact, it is now in the 50s back here in the Midwest (we got back last Sunday). Was joking with Linda that we should have just stayed here.. then she pointed out the negative teens they had here and quickly shut me up ha.
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Time is the fire in which we burn…
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How true – one of the few things we lose and can NEVER get back.
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Congrats on 200 already! And nice tips on identifying YCNH in the field, as opposed to BCNH. I’ve also noticed the YCNH have longer legs showing than the BCNH juveniles do. Again, if they are right next to each other it’s much easier to identify. We are expecting below 0F temps the next day or so, wind chills far below that. Stay there as long as you can, weather wise.
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Thank you! Fortunately, the birding picked up after my slow start – currently bettering all my previous paces. I will definite check out your hint on the leg differences, any help in the field is a great thing. We ended up getting nipped by the swath of cold that came through – not as bad as up there for sure, but getting 31 degree temps down here is a travesty…and waste of good beach days. Brad and Linda S. were down here this last weekend – we blamed them for bringing the cold down with them!
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We don’t have the yellow-crowned here. Lovely birds, fine shots!
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Thank you Belinda! It is always fun when we get a chance to see the yellows down there – like you, we don’t tend to get this species back home and I may be partial, but I think they are cuter than the black-crowns. Take care and hopefully the cold snap that cruised through here missed you.
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These are beautiful photos of the herons. I’ve never seen this kind of heron before. We have only the great blue heron and nothing else that I’m aware of. Really great to see these photos you took.
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Thank you Anneli! Belinda was just commenting they didn’t get the Yellow-Crowned where she was, I had always thought their range was wider. The best thing is they are rather docile Herons and don’t mind me pointing a large barrel at them for extended periods of times as I fight to get the settings right. Take care and have yourself a great rest of the week.
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All birds should be that co-operative!
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Tru-dat!
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Excellent photos of the two Nights in Gray Feathers with slightly Moody Blues. As they say, “busy as a stickery beaver!” Oh! Wait. That’s a porcupine. Oh well, they both gnaw on trees. However, porcupines apparently don’t consume their own feces for nutrients like beavers.
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Thanks Tim – bonus points for reference a MB song ha. Are you serious about Beaver and their feces…good lord, at least Monkeys have the decency to throw it at you.
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Yes, beavers eat their crap. If you tell a beaver to “eat shit,” it will not take it as an insult.
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Bad Beavers, very very bad Beavers!!!
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200 birds already? That is impressive. I love the photos, and the stories behind them make it even better☺️ Our warmest wishes to everyone and their dear ones on the Team.
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There is nothing like January birding in Texas, although I will say it is a bit down this year thanks to a limited number of rarities to chase. No worries though, as we have been filling up the camera cards with plenty of material to keep everyone entertained this year. Take care and thanks for dropping in – hoping it is warmer over there than it is here at the moment.
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You guys are really making progress! And this guy is fantastic! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this type of adult heron. Hoping Linda gets past her cedar fever soon.☀️
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Hi Lisa, been a while! Unfortunately, we have stalled a bit on the birding front thanks to this ridiculous $%@$#%@$%@ cold front that is really annoying me – guessing you have been getting some form of it as well. Fingers crossed this moves out in a day or two so I can get back to finding birds and other wildlife to entertain you with the rest of the year. If there is a silver lining in our cold temps it has cleared out the Cedar Fever for a bit, so Linda is definitely breathing better until it warms back up – pick your poison at this point ha. Take care and appreciate you coming by!
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