Black-crowned Night Heron

Nycticorax nycticorax

The black-crowned night heron or black-capped night heron, commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. In Australasia it is replaced by the closely related Nankeen night heron, with which it has hybridised in the area of contact. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 201,280 times across 196 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 17°C (typically 15 to 26°C, from 50 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in North America ranged from 19°N in January to 34°N in November, about 1,600 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.