The Story
I photographed this Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) in Temecula, California on May 30, 2017. It stands still at the water’s edge to ambush its prey, mainly at night, early in the morning or in the evening. Its scientific name, nycticorax, comes from the Greek for night raven. It nests in colonies, on stick platforms in groups of trees or on the ground in safe places such as islands and reedbeds, and its colonies are noisy with quok calls. Temecula lies about 58 miles north of downtown San Diego and was incorporated as a city on December 1, 1989.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. IUCN lists the Black-crowned Night Heron as Least Concern, and in 2016 Temecula opened the Vail Headquarters historic district, giving new uses to old buildings such as the Wolf Store.
©2017 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025). Source: IUCN Red List