HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS: Family Ardeidae [ill] 



Black-crowned Night Heron: 



Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli (Gmelin) 



DESCRIPTION. "Bill about as long as tarsus. Adults: crown and back black; wings 

 and tail ashy gray; forehead and throat creamy white, shading into light gray of 

 sides and under parts. Young: crown blackish, streaked with buff; back dusky gray, 

 spotted and striped, and quills tipped with buff; neck and under parts coarsely 

 striped with buff and dusky. Length: 13-16, wing 1 1.00-11.80, bill 1.80-3.10, tarsus 

 3.10-3.40." (Bailey) Nest: A rough structure of sticks, reeds, and grass, built on 

 the ground, in tules, or in trees. Eggs: 3 to 7, usually 3 to 5, pale bluish green. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from northern Oregon, southern Manitoba, and 

 southern Quebec south to Paraguay and winters from northern California and Ore- 

 gon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New York, south. In 

 Oregon: Common summer resident and breeder from about May 10 to October i. Un- 

 common winter resident in areas where open water remains. 



THE BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (Plate 18, A), or "quawk," is a 

 widely distributed bird in Oregon. It is most abundant in Klamath, Lake, 

 Harney, and Baker Counties, but is found at least occasionally along any 

 of the waterways of that part of the State. Our own records and field 

 notes of other members of the Biological Survey show winter specimens 

 and records from Malheur (December 14), Klamath (December 14, Janu- 

 ary 2.6, February 17 and 18), Harney (December 2.0, January 15, March 

 n), Umatilla (January 15), and Multnomah (December 15, January 14 

 and 15) Counties. In western Oregon it is a fairly common resident at 

 Portland, where it was formerly more abundant, and a less common resi- 

 dent elsewhere. We have no records from Douglas, Jackson, or Josephine 

 Counties, and our only coastal record is from Lincoln County, where 

 Gabrielson saw a single individual, August n, 1930. Straggling indi- 

 viduals are to be expected along the coast, particularly in the lake area 

 of Lane and Douglas Counties. 



Townsend (1839) first recorded this species from the State, and prac- 

 tically all of the literature since his time refers to the colonies in Harney, 

 Klamath, and Lake Counties. Nesting colonies have been definitely re- 

 corded from Malheur Lake, Harney County (Bendire 1877; Willett 1919), 

 Klamath County (Allen 1909; Walker 1917), Warner Valley, Lake County 

 (Prill 192.2^, 192.4)' an< ^ Portland, Multnomah County (Finley i9o6a). 

 The birds in Harney County have shifted location several times in recent 

 years, but the colony still persists in somewhat diminished numbers. The 

 rookery on Upper Klamath Lake, which contained a mixture of Farallon 

 Cormorants, Treganza's Herons, and Black-crowned Night Herons, was 

 in a thriving condition in 1934, the last year in which either of us visited 

 it. We have not visited the Lake County colony, but the herons are still 

 common in Warner Valley, so without doubt it is still in existence. We 

 do not know the present location of the Portland rookery, but the birds 

 still frequent the vicinity in small numbers. Finley, in 1906, reported 2.00 



