Black-crowned Night-Heron Nycticorax nycticorax Linnaeus       Field Guide IDs: NG-56; G-98; PE-104; PW-pl 4; AE-pl 20; AW-pl 8; AM (I)-118 Nest Location Nest Type Eggs & Mating System Dev. & Parental Care Primary & 2ndary Diet.. Foraging Strategy MF I: 24-26 DAYS SEMIALTRICIAL 1 SHRUB 15-30 feet (0-60 feet) MF 3-5 (1-7) MONOG F: 42-49 DAYS MF AQUATIC .....INVERTS BREEDING: Marshes, swamps, ponds, lakes, lagoons, mangroves; occ grassland, rice fields. 1 brood. DISPLAYS: On tree male bows, stretches neck, erects breast feathers and back plumes, calls. Female responds similarly. Pair bills, plumage smooth. NEST: In tree, shrub, cattails, occ concealed in dense undergrowth. Often fragile, loose, of sticks, twigs, reeds; occ substantial. Scantily lined with finer materials. Perennial. EGGS: Light bluish/greenish. 2.0" (52 mm). DIET: Mainly fish, usu from within territory; also insects, eggs and young birds (esp terns, heron, ibis), small mammals, amphibians (esp in spring), other lower vertebrates. Young fed regurgitant, later mostly fish, unpredigested. CONSERVATION: Winters s to S.A., but esp Cuba and C.A. Blue List 1972-81, Special Concern 1982, Local Concern 1986; stable or increasing in most areas. NOTES: Usu in small to large colony. Pair defend nest. First breed at 1-3 yr, usu 2-3. Clutch larger in n. Young hatch asynchronously; very noisy. Forage at dawn, dusk, and at night. Roost in trees. In day, attacked by "day" herons. STANFORD. NOTES: ESSAYS: Feathers; Precocial and Altricial Young; Blue List; Coloniality; Communal Roosting. REFERENCES: Custer et al., 1983; Hancock and Kushlan, 1984; Tremblay and Ellison, 1980.