{"id":35633,"date":"2016-02-16T05:35:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=35633"},"modified":"2025-09-21T18:55:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T23:55:46","slug":"a-juvenile-black-crowned-night-heron-stalking-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/02\/16\/a-juvenile-black-crowned-night-heron-stalking-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron Stalking Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking prey \u2013 Nikon D810, f8, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last August I was able to spend time observing and photographing this juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking prey at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were about a half dozen Snowy Egrets in the same area<\/span><\/a> and this juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron would become aggressive<\/span><\/a> when they came close to it.<\/p>\n

This image shows the juvenile standing on a rock and peering into the Bear River. The Snowy Egrets had moved further away and the heron seemed entirely focused on quietly stalking its prey.<\/p>\n

Black-crowned Night Herons do breed at the refuge but unlike the breeding Black-crowned Night Herons that I saw nesting in trees in Florida the ones at the refuge will nest on small islands in the marsh because there are very few trees on the entire refuge.<\/p>\n

Most of those trees are invasive Tamarisks which could not support a nesting colony. It is highly likely that this young night heron hatched some where in the marsh on the refuge.<\/p>\n

Wherever it hatched I am glad to have seen and photographed the young night heron.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Black-crowned Night Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last August I was able to spend time observing and photographing this juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking prey at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,321,1148,26],"tags":[4529,1533,4136,627,626,4067,4071,4094,3956,3957,4292,4106,4118,2315,313,4095],"class_list":["post-35633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-black-crowned-night-herons","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","tag-bear-river","tag-black-crowned-night-heron","tag-foraging","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-marsh","tag-night-heron","tag-night-herons","tag-nycticorax-nycticorax","tag-prey","tag-stalking","tag-summer-3","tag-wading-birds","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-5335.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-9gJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8512,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/03\/juvenile-black-crowned-night-heron-stalking-prey\/","url_meta":{"origin":35633,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron Stalking Prey","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron Stalking prey at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in northern Utah","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking prey in a marsh at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-4465.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-4465.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Heron in Flight Photo","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've taken my share of crappy photos during the time I have been focused on photographing birds but this photo of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron crapping in flight may be the crappiest of them all.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Crappy photo of a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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Close Up Experience","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I drove up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to see what birds I could find to photograph and I am glad I did because I had a wonderful juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron close up experience.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Agitated juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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Habitat","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Nearly hidden in the marsh vegetation was an immature Black-crowned Night Heron perched on some phrags at the edge of the water.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron with its eyes on prey, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6274.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6274.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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