{"id":396,"date":"2010-08-22T03:41:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-22T09:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=396"},"modified":"2025-06-11T06:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T11:02:15","slug":"hungry-heron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/08\/22\/hungry-heron\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungry Yellow-crowned Night Heron"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yellow-crownedYellow-crowned Night Heron stalking a Ghost Crab –\u00a0D200, handheld, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 200, 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Adrian Burke and I were photographing together one morning last year\u00a0on the Gulf coast of \u00a0Florida when we came across this Yellow-crowned Night Heron stalking a Ghost Crab.\u00a0 Adrian and I laid down on our stomachs in the sand and got ready for some action.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-crownedGotcha! – Yellow-crowned Night Heron catches the Ghost Crab –\u00a0 D200, handheld, f8, 1\/1000, ISO 200, 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t take long for the Yellow-crowned Night Heron to grab the crab\u00a0and send the sand flying. This was a fairly large crab and it seemed to be trying to put up a fight.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-crownedThe Ghost Crab tries to fight back –\u00a0<\/span>D200, handheld, f8, 1\/800, ISO 200, 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It was difficult not crack up when through my viewfinder I saw the crab grab the heron’s bill and possibly its tongue. The heron didn’t look too pleased either.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-crownedYellow-crowned Night Heron tearing up a Ghost Crab – D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 200, 70-300mm at 220mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yellow-crowned Night heron tore the pincers off of the Ghost Crab first and then proceeded to remove the rest of the crab’s legs.\u00a0 Our presence; still laying flat on the sand, didn’t seem to bother the heron at all.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-crownedYellow-crowned Night Heron with breakfast on the go – D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 200, 70-300mm at 155mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of beach walkers walked by the heron and it moved closer to where we were laying in the sand. The beach walkers didn’t seem to notice the heron or for that matter the two crazy, sand-crawling \u00a0photographers.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-crownedYellow-crowned Night Heron with nearly devoured Ghost Crab – D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1500, ISO 200, 70-300mm at 195mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn’t take much longer for the heron to finish devouring the crab. The heron still must have been hungry because it started stalking yet another Ghost Crab in the mangroves before we could even sit up.<\/p>\n

Some times the Ghost Crab is the predator and some times it is the prey as it was for this Yellow-crowned Night Heron.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Yellow-crowned Night Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

This Yellow-crowned Night Heron has what is called a “blown eye”, the pupil is irregularly shaped. I have seen this same eye problem in American Oystercatchers, some of the herons and in Owls. It does not appear to affect the ability to hunt for food.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It didn’t take long for the Yellow-crowned Night Heron to grab the crab and send the sand flying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148098,"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":[354,27,25,704,2000,93],"tags":[4004,4039,5229,5132,674,11940,4286,4040,3999,4077,626,3970,519,4000,1090,4017,4118,4001,313,3996,95],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ghost-crabs","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-yellow-crowned-night-heron","tag-adult","tag-beach","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-crab","tag-eat","tag-eating","tag-feeding","tag-ghost-crab","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-herons","tag-hunting","tag-nature","tag-nyctanassa-violacea","tag-ocypode-quadrata","tag-sand","tag-stalking","tag-wading-bird","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-yellow-crowned-night-heron"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-devouring-crab-florida-1420.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-6o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2624,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/07\/02\/juvenile-yellow-crowned-night-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":396,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This young Yellow-crowned Night Heron moved very slowly and it seemed to do that deliberately.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron with a crab, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-crab-florida-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-crab-florida-mia-mcpherson-4572.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41656,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/09\/02\/gulf-shore-yellow-crowned-night-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":396,"position":3},"title":"Gulf Shore Yellow-crowned Night Heron","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I did see and photograph this adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron standing on a grassy sand dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in beautiful, soft light.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-crowned Night Heron and morning solitude, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-solitude-mia-mcpherson-6843.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-solitude-mia-mcpherson-6843.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Crawdads"","block_context":{"text":"Crawdads","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/crawdads\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-crowned Night Heron eating a crawdad,Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-9718.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-9718.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-9718.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-9718.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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