home » Hats » Extendable neck of the American green night heron. Heron bird: photo and description What heron eats

Extendable neck of the American green night heron. Heron bird: photo and description What heron eats

Field signs. Most often green night heron it is possible to observe taking off from the shore or flying low over the river. Its dimensions during the flight approach the size of the yellow heron or are somewhat smaller. It flies rather quickly, often flaps its wings and does not retract its neck so much. Sitting on the shore and seeing an approaching person or boat, she first freezes, stretching her neck, and then moves a short distance along the shore. The heron again sits on the shallows under a steep bank on a root sticking out of the water, an overturned boat, on the lower or middle dry branch of a tree growing on the shore, but does not sit on the tops of trees. At the same time, the bird rarely rises higher than the trees growing on the banks and, as a rule, flies 15-20 meters above the water surface.

Usually does not run across the ground, and it can probably be picked up where it sits. However, wounded in the wing, she runs with remarkable agility. With regard to humans, the green heron behaves differently, depending on the circumstances, but is generally less cautious than large species of herons. The voice of a bird can be heard quite often during a calm flight or during takeoff. According to Menzbier (1916) it is like a short dull croak, which is certainly erroneous. Shulpin (1936) conveys it with the sound "tsik-tsik-tsik", which is also difficult to agree with. The bird's voice is high and sharp, it sounds like a sharp "tilk" or more often "tiuu". The bird is twilight, lives alone and in pairs, keeps in dense bushes along the banks of reservoirs.

area. Extremely extensive. Birds inhabit the temperate, but mainly subtropical and tropical countries of Asia, Africa, America and Australia.

The nature of the stay. Sedentary species in southern latitudes and migratory in the northernmost parts of its range. Correct flights are characteristic of the birds inhabiting Japan, Sev. China, Korea and the USSR.

Biotope. The green night heron adheres to thickets along the banks of inland waters.

Subspecies and Variable Characters. There are many subspecies of the night heron. Some of them differ slightly, others, on the contrary, differ well in size, plumage color and details of biology.

Biotope. Shady coastal growths of vines, alders, bird cherry and other tree species framing the rivers. Birds especially willingly choose coastal thickets of river backwaters, heavily littered channels among numerous islands, where snags are found in abundance, trees washed away by water with an exposed root system and a forest brought here in high water, rafted along the river. Green herons adhere to these stations with great constancy. Here, sitting on roots exposed to water, on a snag or on a narrow shallow under a steeply dipping shore in fast-flowing water, it gets its own food.

During the period of growing up chicks, these herons occasionally fly out of coastal thickets, visiting ditches, banks of ponds among villages located in close proximity to rivers. In marshes and stagnant water bodies far from rivers, it does not positively occur. In such habitats, herons live in separate pairs, and later in families, never forming colonial nesting sites in our country. In contrast, in Japan, the Amur green night heron breeds not only in separate pairs, but also in colonies of 3 to 10 pairs each (Yan, 1942). On the rivers flowing from the Sikhote-Alin ridge, it lives in the lower sections with a wide river valley and almost never enters the mountains. In the middle and southern parts of the country (for example, Iman), it often penetrates into mountain valleys.

population. On the Amur, the green night heron is not numerous. To the south, the number increases markedly and on the Ussuri the heron is very common and the more often the farther south. Most often found on Sungach. Rare along the lower Lef in the area of Spassk-Yakovlevsk. In the lower reaches of the Iman, for one kilometer along the river, from 1 to 3 pairs nest. In general, a rather numerous bird in its habitats, which populates quite densely.

reproduction. Nests are always arranged on trees (willow, apple, alder), sometimes hanging over the water surface, sometimes growing aside up to 30-35 meters from the shore. Nesting structures are located at different heights from the ground or water. When a nest is built above water, it can be placed very low (about 1.5-2 m above water), more often a little higher, occasionally at a height of 10-12 m. In most cases, nests are difficult to access. They are placed either on thin, criss-crossing vines that cannot support the weight of a person, or at the end of an apple tree branch, far from the trunk.

The nests are similar in shape and arrangement of nest material to nests of other herons nesting in trees. Their shape is an inverted cone, sometimes with very steep, sometimes opposite, with gentle walls. Some thin branches diverge radially from the top of the cone, where they are fastened with a small amount of clay or bird droppings. The building is not dense, eggs are visible through the walls from the sides and from below. Nest sizes vary considerably. In some cases, they are not larger than nests of turtledoves ( Streptopelia orientalis), in others much more. The nest found on the Suifun had a diameter of 28 cm, with a tray depth of 6 cm (Shulpin, 1936). The nests we examined on Iman turned out to be much smaller. The largest of them had a transverse diameter of 19 cm. In a small nest tray, lateral eggs with a large clutch lay somewhat higher than the central ones. Few nests known to us contained clutches of 3 to 5 eggs. Finished clutches, judging by the dissections of nesting birds, apparently may contain 7 or even 8 eggs.

The timing of reproduction remains poorly understood. On Iman, the earliest unfinished clutch of 5 eggs was found on May 23rd. Considering that the bird lays the first 3 eggs daily, and the rest at large intervals, it can be assumed that laying began on May 16th. Nests with fresh eggs were also examined by us much later (before June 11). On the Suifun, a nest of 5 completely fresh eggs was found by Shulpin on June 4th. Eggs have a shell - pale blue, like a night heron, in color. Their shape varies greatly. Some of them are regular ovoid in shape, others are strongly elongated with equally rounded ends. They are smaller than the eggs of the night heron, little white heron, Egyptian heron, but somewhat larger than the yellow heron. The length of eggs from Iman and Sui-fun (26) is 37.4-43.0 mm x 29.0-31.1 mm, the average is 40.9 x 30.4 mm.

Incubation begins after the first egg is laid. The bird sits little on the first laid eggs, and the size of embryos and chicks of one nest differs slightly. The participation of sexes in incubation is not known. Females were found on nests, while males stayed nearby. The female sitting on the nest lets the man very close. Having risen from the eggs, stretching out her neck and beak, she freezes in such a pose, typical for some herons, and flies off only when the observer shakes the branches of the nesting tree. Frightened from the nest, it returns relatively soon to the incubated eggs, but for a long time does not fly up to the nest, the laying of which has not yet been completed. The timing of incubation of eggs in green night herons has not been clarified. Apparently, like most herons, the chicks acquire the ability to climb and fly in a short time. On the river A juvenile specimen was caught by Przhevalsky on July 12, and from the middle of July young specimens came across to him quite often (Shulpin, 1936).

The night-crown chicks that have flown out of the nests, together with the old people, continue to adhere to nesting sites for a long time. On Iman, an old female and three of her flying chicks were killed near an empty nest during the period from 24 to 29 August. Thus, the family stayed in the nesting area until the time of departure. Perhaps the departure itself occurs in families, and not in flocks, and therefore it is difficult to notice it. The main concern for feeding the chicks lies with the male.
At the end of June, males flying for food can often be seen not only at dusk, but also during the whole day.

What can I say, there are a lot of harriers living with us now. They know how to take care of themselves. At any water source, natural or artificial, if there are fish in the water, the night herons stand like sentries and hunt. We've photographed them so much already that my husband now refuses to point his camera at them. And I loved them, and I love them. Therefore, I decided to write about them in some detail, since I found interesting materials, and there are countless photos in the archive :)

Common night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax אנפת לילה)

The night herons have such a stocky figure, unlike any other herons.

Grace, subtlety of the heron is not at all :) There is no such characteristic disproportionate, I would say, tragically long neck :). There is practically no neck at all :) At the same time, she has some kind of her own unusually beautiful buzzing plasticity. Some of her poses are reminiscent of medieval engravings :)

The top of the head and shoulder feathers are black with a bluish metallic sheen. The forehead, superciliary stripe, as well as the ventral side of the body are white. Wings, loins and tail are grey. The beak is black, the iris is red. The length of the wing is 26-30 cm. The weight of the birds is from 550 to 800 g.

Usually, night harks have yellow legs, in the mating season and the nesting season they are red, and long narrow white feathers appear on the head of the bird. Feathers can be with yellow legs too :) As for feathers, I don’t even know what to say - we almost don’t see harks without these feathers. So it is difficult to understand when their mating season begins and ends.

White feathers on the head are an additional reason for which many love the night heron, and if you add more red eyes, which have something demonic in them, all this makes it even more interesting.

About feathers that almost led to the destruction of the species.
The beautiful decorative feathers on the head of the night heron, as well as the egrets of the little egret, were the cause of the almost complete destruction of these birds in Western Europe in the first half of the 20th century. It was fashionable to decorate ladies' and men's hats with these feathers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The last Chinese emperor. Photo Wikipedia. Note his hat with a plume of feathers very similar to the white feathers of night herons. How many birds must be killed for one such plume, if one night heron can have a maximum of 4 such plumes?
For the sake of fashion, many birds were killed. Mass hunting for these feathers stopped only with a change in fashion.

A bit of history...

In his book, written at the end of the 19th century, Henry Baker Tristram writes about the night herons in our area: "The night heron is found in small numbers, never seen flocks. Found in the area and in the valley of Ginosar."
So why are there so many night herons in Israel now? There are statistics dating back to the 50s of the last century.
In 1954, the night heron began nesting in the Spring Valley (עמק המעיינות).
In 1959, nests of night herons, little egrets and yellow herons were discovered on the banks of the Alexander River. The appearance of these three species in Israel is apparently associated with the irrigation and drying of the swamps of Antiochus in southwestern Turkey in the 50s of the last century. The main food of these three species is fish. Industrial fish ponds, which were available in Israel at the same time in large numbers, turned out to be an excellent substitute for the dried-up swamp. The development of fish farms throughout Israel contributes to the prosperity of this species.

Who can be seen in Israel.

In Israel, there are three types of night herring population: resident population, birds on migration and night herons, arriving to nest in the summer, most of these arrivals nest in the area of fish ponds north of Hedera. Some sources also speak of wintering night herons.
Migratory night herons come to us in autumn, in September-October, when European night herons fly to Africa for the winter. In spring, from mid-March to early May, returning flocks can be seen. Since the 1980s, there have been over 2,000 nests in Israel. Often these nesting herons live permanently with us, some of them have flown in for the summer to nest.

The night heron always has a good appetite, in other words, she is gluttonous.
Trying to justify part of its Latin name "nocturnal", the night heron sleeps during the day in places of night herons, and hunts at night. Immediately after sunset, with loud cries, the birds begin their flight towards feeding places: fish ponds, irrigated fields, puddles, river banks, etc. During the nesting season, night herons are very active during the day.
Their food is: fish, crayfish, frogs, lizards, turtles, small rodents, eggs and chicks of other species, bears, dragonflies, songbirds, bats. The night heron always has a good appetite, she is very voracious.
For catching fish, the night heron has several systems: "standing", standing still, not moving, waiting for the fish to approach. "Slow motion", moves slowly so as not to spook the fish. "In flight" flies over water, freezes in the air and dives for fish. "Shadow Image": Opens the wings and walks so that the wings cast a shadow over the water to attract fish that want to hide.
It has been observed that the night heron still know how to fish with bait. They throw bread into the water and grab the fish that comes to eat this bread. Here is a short video without text about how she does it. Pay attention to how she breaks bread into smaller pieces and how she does not try to catch fish that are too big for her. This is not an Israeli video, although it seemed to me that we were filming a similar one.
Usually she catches small fish, up to 60g, which she swallows whole. The night heron can swallow fish up to 120 grams in weight, a quarter of her own weight. If the night heron has caught a fish with a large weight, then it is obvious that this is a sick and weak fish and it is worth someone to remove it from the society of other fish.

To be honest, it always seems to me that these fish, which are caught by night herons, are quite worthy candidates for a festive gefiltefish weigh at least 500 grams ... but this is not realistic when the weight of the bird itself is from 550 grams :)

Now, in order to eat fish, you need to boil it, turn your head into the croaker's stomach :) Otherwise, it will not enter.

Turns the night heron fish with a light toss

The final swallowing is accompanied by a not too aesthetic stretching of the neck, which is suddenly found in the night heron :) for a short time the fish is right in the neck and it is thanks to this that we see the neck :)

Mostly the night heron are fished in industrial fish ponds and are considered pests of agriculture. The owners of the ponds are trying to drive the night heron from the ponds in all possible ways. Despite their small size, night herons cause significant damage to farms. Fish farms are trying to drive away the night heron in humane ways: with scarecrows, nets and ropes over ponds to prevent birds from catching fish. Kwakwa knows how to think. Little can stop her... But I saw one nesting colony on the territory of the fish farm, which was set on fire. Of course, the birds left her.

This is my opening photo. A couple of lower photos on the theme of birds dying at the hands of man. If on the left a piebald kingfisher is entangled in the net, then on the right the night heron seems to be diving into the water after a fish. But actually it is not. The night heron, like the kingfisher, got tangled in the net, the photographer simply did not show this net. There is a sign with a very long story next to this photo of a night heron, about how the photographer tried to save a night heron at a fish pond, but the caretaker there did not let him, because. the network could be damaged. After leaving the bird to die, the photographer began to reflect on the last day of the bird...
But, I repeat once again, night herons are smart birds and only a few die, and most flourish and safely damage fisheries ...

The night heron loves to hunt in small groups...

... in large groups, dozens, hundreds of birds together. In contrast, when migrating, night herons prefer to fly alone or in small groups.
We somehow did not meet hundreds of birds hunting together, and such groups as in this photo are very attractive for....

... hunters photographers-lovers of birds.

About family life.

In recent years, the number of night herons has increased significantly and can be found in almost any breeding colony, along with other species such as Egyptian herons and little egrets. The night heron can breed twice a year.
If in the past the night heron nested mainly in the north, today it can be found in many parks in the center of the country.

These three species nest all together, forming mixed colonies with other species, with Egyptian herons and little egrets. They are clearly visible in the photo. In such colonies, we also saw loaves and Egyptian herons. There are such colonies all over the country from the north to Safari in Ramat Gan in the south.

Building a nest is not easy...

... and not easy, the branches are very heavy...

Just some kind of dove of peace, but in fact - a night heron :)

The nest is built from plant materials, the diameter of the nest is about 45 centimeters. Nesting takes place in nesting colonies from March. Nests are built in trees up to 50 meters high.

Someone is already sitting in the nest, and someone is engaged in courtship.

The female lays 3-5 bright turquoise eggs.

After 24-26 days, the chicks hatch, usually 1-2 days apart, in the sequence in which the eggs were laid. Here on the left is an Egyptian heron chick, they all nest all together, on each other's heads in terrible crowding. The chick is brown, spotted, similar to a small dinosaur :) The chicks hatch with open eyes, in fluff.

After 10 days, the chicks crawl out of the nest and hide among the branches. When the parents arrive to feed the chicks, they call the chicks in a ritualistic way, which includes the turning of long white feathers and nape feathers. Otherwise, they will be attacked by chicks that attack everything else. Both parents feed the chicks, first regurgitating half-digested food into their beaks. Later, when the chicks grow up, they begin to feed them with regular food.
Note that the red legs are specifically visible here, complete with white feathers.

Already at 2 months old, the chicks are able to fly. Despite the excellent flight opportunities at such an early age, the chicks return to spend the night in the nest with their parents at the first time of their independence.

Up to three years, the birds look completely different, they are brown in color with white spots.

Something interesting about herbs:
In Latin, the night heron is called Nycticorax nycticorax, where Corax is a raven and Nuctus is night, it was believed that the sounds made by the bird were similar to crows. And in Russian, their voices sound like a kind of \\"kwak, kwak, kwak\\", repeated intermittently. Thanks to this kva, the Russian name of the bird appeared. In general, their voices are amazing :) Soothing, cooing and everything is on the topic of qua :) I didn’t hear anything from the crow :) These are noisy birds, especially during nesting.
There is an indication of the bird's nocturnal life in several languages, in Hebrew, English and German. This indicated its difference from other herons.
The heron is mentioned in the Torah as a bird that is forbidden to be eaten. "The stork and all kinds of herons..." (דברים י"ד, 18)
In Greek mythology, it is said that in the beginning all birds ate the same food. And suddenly herons discovered the ability to find food in the water. They boasted of these abilities and the fact that they could swim better than Poseidon, the god of the seas. As a result, they were punished and lost the opportunity to swim. Now they are forced to fish patiently standing on the shore.
The longest lifespan of a night heron in nature is 21 years. This information is obtained using banding.
Nycticorax nycticorax has 4 subspecies:
N. n. nycticorax Distributed in Africa, Europe and Asia
N. n. hoactli North America to Central America
N. n. obscure Central America to Tierra del Fuego
N. n. falklandicus Enlemic of the Falkland Islands
The night heron is a common bird. It breeds on all continents except Australia and Antarctica, preferring hot and tropical areas.
The world population of night heron is stable in size, but the exact number of birds is not known.
The expansion of agricultural areas, mainly fish ponds, as well as parks and pine groves, has made it possible to increase the number of nesting birds.

A real city bug.

It turns out that in the most urban center of the most urban city of Israel, in Tel Aviv on the Square of the Kings of Israel Rabin, in an ecologically clean pool, a new feathered resident has appeared - the night heron. In the summer of 2012, this was officially written in the newspaper :) This pool appeared not too long ago, but goldfish live in it, there is a lot of water and plants. Local residents and employees of the Tel Aviv city hall, which is very close, reacted with great interest and understanding to the bird, which decided that this was a convenient place for hunting. Let the goldfish be small, but there is no competition. Kwakwa is not disturbed by street noise, not by many people passing by. As soon as the birds see that the noise does not interfere with their hunting and everyday life, they stop noticing it on the drum. I have seen large nesting colonies almost right on the railroad and on the highway.
The creators of the ecological pool consider it a good sign that the night heron comes to hunt in this pond. And they promise that if there is not enough fish in the pond, they will add more. Birds are an additional attraction and demonstrate the environmental friendliness of the pond, which attracts wild night herons. Fish in the pond live well and they multiply rapidly. In addition to the night heron, the white-breasted kingfisher also flies to this pond, as I understood from the information on the network.
about necklace parrots http://dona-anna.dreamwidth.org/

Class - Birds / Subclass - New-palatine / Superorder - Storks

History of study

Common night heron, or night heron, is a bird of the heron family.

Spreading

The common night heron inhabits almost all of America, Africa, South and Central Europe and Asia. European night herons are migratory, wintering in Equatorial Africa. There is no ordinary night heron only in Australia. In Russia, a large number of nesting night herons can be found in the Volga delta.

Appearance

The night heron has a short neck compared to other herons and a short but strong and powerful beak. The legs are also shorter than those of other herons. The male in breeding plumage has a black cap with a greenish tint and a back of the same color. Wings are grey. The belly and sides are white. 2-4 long narrow white feathers grow on the back of the head in spring. The beak is black, the legs are yellow or pinkish with long toes. The female has a similar color. Young birds are dark brown with longitudinal streaks. Downy chicks are white.

reproduction

Night-crowns nest in colonies with other herons or their own colonies of up to a thousand pairs in trees or bushes. If the nesting site is far from human habitation, they can also nest on reed beds. The night heron builds a nest from small twigs, where the female lays 3-4 eggs. After 21 days, the chicks hatch, usually 1-2 days apart, in the order in which the eggs were laid. Both parents feed the chicks, first regurgitating half-digested food into their beaks. Later, when the chicks grow up, they begin to feed them with regular food.

Lifestyle

Night-crowns are active mainly in the mornings and evenings, during the day they sit motionless on a branch. However, during nesting time they are active during the day. They nest near densely overgrown reservoirs on the forest edge or in the forest.

In summer, 2-4 long feathers grow on the back of the head, in males they are about 5 cm longer than in females. In summer the beak is black, at other times it is black-gray with light edges. Eyes large, coral red in summer. Young birds vaguely resemble bitterns. They are brown with greyish-yellow streaks on each feather, the legs are green, and the eyes are yellow.

The yellowish throat also has brown longitudinal streaks. In the second summer, young birds can still be distinguished from older ones: their plumage is more dull, brownish, color contrasts are more blurred, and feather decorations are shorter.

Food

The night heron feeds mainly on fish and frogs, as well as aquatic insects.

Here is such a bird - the American green night heron (Green Heron) - a small marsh bird of the heron family that lives on the American continent. Here is such a lump. And you know, they say that 90% of her volume is occupied by the neck.

Here's what happens when she's surprised...

Photo 2.

Here is such a telescopic neck.

Photo 3.

Kwakwa- an overseas guest and a typical bird of the Indo-Malay fauna. In Russia, she lives in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories. It nests even near Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Apparently, this is the northernmost finding of the night heron. Her favorite place of residence is river urems with lush vegetation, flooded with water. At dusk, when the night heron becomes more active, she freely makes her way in dense thickets near the water, tenaciously intercepting branches with her bony fingers. At the moment of danger, she, like a bittern, freezes motionless, staring unblinking evil eyes and stretching her long beak forward and upward.

In open places, the night heron is rarely shown, and it is not often possible to see her, and even then in flight. In the air, she is very clumsy and unhurried.

Photo 4.

Most often green night heron it is possible to observe taking off from the shore or flying low over the river. Its dimensions during the flight approach the size of the yellow heron or are somewhat smaller. It flies rather quickly, often flaps its wings and does not retract its neck so much. Sitting on the shore and seeing an approaching person or boat, she first freezes, stretching her neck, and then moves a short distance along the shore. The heron again sits on the shallows under a steep bank on a root sticking out of the water, an overturned boat, on the lower or middle dry branch of a tree growing on the shore, but does not sit on the tops of trees. At the same time, the bird rarely rises higher than the trees growing on the banks and, as a rule, flies 15-20 meters above the water surface.

Photo 5.

Photo 6.

area. Extremely extensive. Birds inhabit the temperate, but mainly subtropical and tropical countries of Asia, Africa, America and Australia.

Biotope. The green night heron adheres to thickets along the banks of inland waters.

Subspecies and Variable Characters. There are many subspecies of the night heron. Some of them differ slightly, others, on the contrary, differ well in size, plumage color and details of biology.

Photo 7.

Photo 8.

Photo 9.

Detachment - storks

Family - Herons

Genus/Species - Nycticorax nycticorax. common night heron

Basic data:

DIMENSIONS

Length: 58-65 cm.

Weight: around 500-700

BREEDING

Puberty: from 2-3 years old.

Nesting period: usually from April to July.

Carrying: 1 per season.

Number of eggs: 3-5.

Incubation: 21-23 days.

Feeding chicks: 6-7 weeks.

LIFESTYLE

Habits: common heron heron (see photo of the bird) sleeps and raises chicks in colonies.

Food: fish, insects.

Lifespan: up to 16 years old.

RELATED SPECIES

Close relatives of the common night heron are 3 other species of night heron: Nycticorax violceus, which lives in North and South America, N. leuconotus of Central and South Africa, and N. caledonicus from Australia.

The common night heron has a rather massive beak and short legs. It has a black back with a greenish metallic sheen, its wings, body and tail are gray in color, and its belly is whitish. On the neck of this heron several long decorative feathers grow, which fall to the middle of the back. Young birds receive such an outfit for the second spring.

WHAT DOES IT FEED

Outside of the feeding period, when there is no need to worry about the ever-hungry chicks, the night heron goes to feed at dusk and early in the morning. Often, in search of food, the bird flies to more distant places, where it finds more prey. Here this heron roams leisurely in shallow water and catches careless fish. The night heron often climbs to the depths and swims, unlike, which, during the hunt, stands motionless in shallow water. The night herons are social birds, but they go hunting alone.

The food of this bird consists mainly of small fish, frogs, aquatic insects and their larvae. The common night heron often forages on land. Here insects, spiders, small rodents and even birds become its prey.

WHERE Dwells

The night heron is found all over the world except Australia and breeds in a variety of wet habitats. It very often appears on the banks of rivers overgrown with dense vegetation, flooded with water, areas overgrown with reeds, on ponds and near shallow lakes, streams and in marshy regions. The night heron can be found in sea bays, estuaries, and coastal brackish lakes. These birds prefer areas where tall trees grow. These herons nest on them and spend the night. Often, several dozen night-crowns spend the night on one tree. Non-European populations settle in mangrove forests. Here they live next door to the kaguya, which are very common in these areas. However, kaguya are active during the day, therefore, looking for food, these birds do not compete with each other. In many regions, night herons are migratory. Birds from North America fly to Central America for the winter. Asiatic night herons winter in Indonesia, while southern populations spend most of the year on nesting grounds.

BREEDING

The night heron is a social bird. They build nests in large colonies, very often the birds nest together with other heron species.

The mating ritual is started by a male common night heron. First, he finds a place for a nest and bravely defends it from rivals. Seeing the intruder, the male takes on a formidable look, stretches his neck forward, puffs up his feathers, thus showing who is the rightful owner of the site. Then he tilts his head and lets out a short croak, which is supposed to frighten the enemy. Paired birds greet each other, gently clapping their beaks and combing each other's feathers. The male builds the base of the nest from several branches, and when he manages to attract the female, he gives her branches, offering to continue building. The night heron's nest is a rather messy design. Birds use it for several years, each time completing and renovating the structure. These herons build a new nest only when other birds occupy their old nest.

Heron nests are located on trees or in thickets near the water. Often there are several nests on one tree at once. Sometimes the birds nest among the reeds. It is extremely rare that the night heron nests are located at a height of up to 45 m from the ground or far from water bodies. The female lays one egg every 48 hours. Full clutch contains 3-5 bluish-green eggs. The parents incubate them together. Incubation begins with the laying of the first egg. The first chick hatches in 3-4 weeks, and its younger brothers and sisters appear with a break of several days. Newborns are covered in dark brown plumage with creamy white spots and lighter undersides. Parents together feed the chicks with fish. At three weeks of age, the chicks leave the nest.

During the hunt, herons hold outstretched wings above the surface of the water - it is easier for birds to notice prey in the shadow of their wings.
Another name for the common night heron is the night heron.
In the UK, the common night heron is a very rare bird, but since 1951 a colony of these birds from North America has nested here.
When catching fish, herons use a rather interesting method. They throw a piece of food or a feather on the surface of the water and patiently wait for some fish to fall for this "bait" and swim up to the hunter.
The largest known colony of night herons was found in Virginia (USA). It numbered about 1,200 pairs of birds.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF QUAQUAA

Legs: medium length, short enough for storks. Most of the year they are light green, in the nesting period the color of the legs becomes light yellow.

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