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.
Mid-January, I was lucky enough to take a trip to Costa Rica with my family. Found there is one Earth’s most critically important ecosystems—the mangrove forest.
Look for swampy areas, often with lots of dead trees, preferably surrounded by water on all sides. These haunted swamps are where herons build their Dr. Seuss-looking platforms, nesting near the tops of trees.