A Yellow-crowned Night Heron wading through shallow water (photo by Gary Shackelford).
I’m enjoying my morning coffee at my daughter’s house in Doral, Florida, looking out over the small subdivision lake behind her house. There is a family of Muscovy Ducks slowly cruising the shoreline. There’s one adult and seven very small ducklings, probably less than a week old. It’s a “built” lake, so much of the shoreline is rather steep, with short grass right up to the edge. In one small cove, however, the slope is more gradual, and some emergent aquatic vegetation has taken hold.
I notice the little family is being watched by another pair of eyes—a Yellow-crowned Night Heron walking slowly along the shore about 25 feet above and slightly ahead of them. The ducklings are swimming around their parent but every now and then, one of them runs up onto the shore. This is a mistake! The heron launches an attack, running down to the shore, but the Muscovy parent charges the heron and the duckling escapes. The parent then leads the ducklings into the reedy vegetation, where they are partially hidden, and the heron backs away. But it is still waiting. Finally, the family continues out into the open, and one duckling runs too far up onto the shore. In a flash, the heron strikes, grabs a small yellow duckling, and flies out of sight!
I watch the area over the next few days. Now the mother has only two little ones left, and next time the heron visits, it is unsuccessful. The ducklings are larger and faster, and they stay right next to their parent. Lesson learned!
A feral Muscovy Duck has much white plumage and red skin on the face (photo by Gary Shackelford).
Muscovy Ducks are native to Central and South America and may be found in Texas along the Rio Grande, but there is also a common domesticated version. Wild Muscovies are black with a greenish sheen and white wing patches in flight. The ones in Florida are a feral population of a domesticated type and look quite different, with large white splotches on the body and prominent areas of red skin on the face. They are a nuisance in the residential ponds and canals of Doral.
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is primarily a coastal bird that hunts at night and prefers crabs and crayfish. However, they can be found in inland waters, where their diet is more varied, and apparently includes ducklings. As the name implies, they usually hunt at night, but when breeding, they frequently feed during the early morning and evening. The herons are known to cohabit with humans, often found in wooded residential areas. In keeping with this characteristic, they are the official bird of the city of Houston.
Between 1925 and 1960, for unknown reasons, Yellow-crowned Night Herons expanded their range north. They now breed regularly in the southeastern and south-central United States. Nesting colonies are mainly along the Atlantic coast or the Mississippi River, but scattered colonies or pairs of nests have been found inland in swamps, ponds, and lowland deciduous forests. Yellow-crowned Night Herons are spotted regularly during migration in southern Wisconsin, and may even breed rarely in the state, with a few reports in the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas. In recent years, there have been sightings nearby at Goose Pond Sanctuary, Lake Mills, Fort Atkinson, Lake Koshkonong, and Madison.
Written by Penny Shackelford, Fair Meadows Sanctuary resident manager
Cover image by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. A Yellow-crowned Night Heron sneaks through a shrubby area.
