Herons and Bitterns 



kin, the green heron is always a hermit, rarely seen in couples, 

 and never found in colonies, even at the nesting season; but 

 surely there are enough exceptions to prove the rule. From all 

 points of its large nesting range come accounts of heronries 

 where not only green herons have built their rickety platforms of 

 sticks in the low branches of trees or bushes in communities, but 

 have associated there with different relatives, particularly with 

 the night heron. They begin to build nests, or reline what the 

 winter storms have left of their old ones, about the middle of 

 April. These birds become attached to their nesting sites that 

 they return to generation after generation, and a roost often be- 

 comes equally dear. There are certain favorite trees in localities 

 where the green heron is abundant that one rarely misses finding 

 a bird perched upon. 



Why it is that the eggs — pale dull blue, from three to six — 

 and the helpless fledgeling do not fall out or through their ram- 

 shackle nursery is a mystery. Indolence characterizes these birds 

 from infancy; for they remain sitting on their haunches in a 

 state of inertia, roused only by visits of their enslaved parents 

 bringing them food, until they are perfectly able to fly, some 

 weeks after hatching. 



Black-crowned Night Heron 



(Nycticorax nycticorax nce-vius) 



Called also: QUAWK; QUA BIRD 



Length — 23 to 26 inches. Stands fully 2 feet high. 



Male and Female — Three long white feathers, often twisted into 

 apparently but one, at the back of head, worn only at the 

 nesting season. Crown and back greenish or dull black; 

 wings, tail, and sides of neck pearl gray with a lilac tint; 

 forehead, throat, and underneath white. Legs and feet yel- 

 low; eyes red; bill stout and black. Immature birds very 

 different: grayish brown, streaked or spotted with buff or 

 white on upper parts; under parts white streaked with 

 blackish ; some reddish brown feathers in wings. 



Range — United States and British provinces, nesting from Mani- 

 toba and New Brunswick southward to South America. 

 Winters in Gulf states and beyond. 



Season — Summer resident, or spring and autumn migrant north 

 of the southern states. Resident all the year at the south. 



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