Black-Crowned Night-Heron: Sentinel
Photo By: Kidist Paulos Asrat
Now on view at Visual Arts Mississauga's Wildlife Exhibition.
(I recently also had my Riverwood barn photograph exhibited at VAM's Fall series - Riverwood Barn Sunflower Glow, August 18 to September 6, 2021.)
If you're up to it, you can view Black-Crowned Night-Heron: Sentinel in the virtual gallery by clicking "Back to 3D Exhibition."
I took the photograph at the Riverwood Conservancy, a large, protected, forest in the middle of Mississauga. It is quite a hike through the forest, and I would join bird watching groups several times from the Spring through to the Fall. I took this photo during such a hike, in early summer about two years ago (2019).
Visual Arts Mississauga is in the Conservancy. It is a genius idea to combine art and nature.
Black-crowned night-herons are rare to see during the day, and especially standing tall and alert as in my photograph:
Seen by day, these chunky herons seem dull and lethargic, with groups sitting hunched and motionless in trees near water. They become more active at dusk, flying out to foraging sites, calling 'wok' as they pass high overhead in the darkness. Some studies suggest that they feed at night because they are dominated by other herons and egrets by day. A cosmopolitan species, nesting on every continent except Australia and Antarctica [Source: The National Audubon Society].
More from The National Audubon Society:
Marshes, shores; roosts in trees. Found in a wide variety of aquatic habitats, around both fresh and salt water, including marshes, rivers, ponds, mangrove swamps, tidal flats, canals, ricefields. Nests in groves of trees, in thickets, or on ground, usually on islands or above water, perhaps to avoid predators.
This fits perfectly with the conservancy's landscape of:
Forest, tablelands, meadows, ravines, wetlands, creeks, and the Credit River
And where these heron can find their fill of fish from the Credit River, which flows through the forest, as well as from the dozens of smaller creeks, and the expansive wetlands.
A little heaven on earth!
Sound: Scroll down at The National Audubon Society web page to "songs and calls" for various examples. Not a graceful sound, but then, here's the bird in full flight, below.
Image from The National Audubon Society's photo album.