Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Overview
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Medium-sized, stocky heron with gray body and brown-and-white mottled wings. Face is black and white; crown is pale yellow and sweeps back as a plume. Eyes are large and red. Bill is heavy and black. Legs and feet are yellow. Direct flight with steady, deep wing beats.

Range and Habitat
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Breeds from southern New England to Florida and west to Texas, mainly near coasts but in the interior north to Minnesota and along Mississippi River and its larger tributaries. Spends winters along the Gulf Coast and on Atlantic coast north to South Carolina. Preferred habitats include wooded swamps and coastal thickets.

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron has an enormous range reaching up to roughly 4.2 million square kilometers. This bird can be found much of Central America, the Caribbean and throughout North America as well. It also has a vagrant population in Berumda. This species appears in forested areas and wetlands such as bogs, marshes, swamps and freshwater lakes, and also in intertidal areas and salt marshes. The global population of this bird is estimated to be around 85,000 to 160,000 individuals. It is not believed that the population trends for this species will soon approach the minimum levels that could suggest a potential decline in population. Due to this, population trends for the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron have a present evaluation level of Least Concern.

INTERESTING FACTS
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is listed as threatened in the state of New Jersey and endangered in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Occasionally it will prey on small turtles; its stomach secretes an acid capable of dissolving the shells. Unlike other night herons, it is active during the day as well as at night. A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "hedge", "pose", "rookery", and "scattering" of herons."