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Photo: ramidos · CC BY 4.0 · source ↗
Black-crowned Night Heron
Gewone Nagreier · Nycticorax nycticorax
A chunky, hunched heron with a black cap and back, grey wings and large red eyes for night vision. It spends the day hidden and quiet in leafy trees, then comes out at dusk to hunt fish and frogs in the shallows. Young birds are brown and heavily spotted with white.
Log your Black-crowned Night Heron sighting — free →How to identify it
A stocky, short-necked heron with a black crown and back, pale grey wings and big red eyes; roosts hidden by day.
Where to see it in Kruger
Roosts in waterside trees by day and feeds at dawn and dusk along rivers, dams and pans.
Did you know
It sleeps in trees all day and only wakes up to hunt at dusk, which is why it is called a night heron.
Often confused with
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