{"id":5001,"date":"2012-05-16T03:55:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T09:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5001"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:38:35","slug":"black-crowned-night-heron-lift-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/16\/black-crowned-night-heron-lift-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-crowned Night Heron Lift Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Black-crownedBlack-crowned Night Heron lift off – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 350mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This is another image that reminds me of the day I photographed it and the great memories of that photo session. I sat with this Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)\u00a0for several minutes on the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/a><\/span> in Box Elder County, Utah.<\/p>\n

My Nikon D300 is giving me the fits, I’ve had it checked out locally and they can’t replicate the issues I am having of the exposure going wonky intermittently, my shutter speed will go from 1\/1000 or higher and then drop to 1\/4 to 1\/60 resulting in pure snowy white images. Yuck. At any rate right now I am using my backup D200’s until I can get the D300 sent to Nikon.<\/p>\n

The day didn’t start off looking great, it looked like it might be cloudy but the light stayed over the refuge while to the south it didn’t look great. There were birds, birds and more birds on the auto tour loop and I was able to catch some wonderful action.<\/p>\n

This heron was standing on a little spit of dry land at the edge of a marshy pond, for a bit it just stood there, then it preened a while. Before too long I could see the bird was going to lift off and fly away. I was ready!<\/p>\n

I was able to take a nice series of images of the Black-crowned Night Heron lift off and and the heron in flight as it flew past me, I really liked the position of the wings, the look at the intensely red eye and those big, dangling yellow feet in this frame.<\/p>\n

Great light. Plenty of birds. I was a happy camper!<\/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":"

I was able to take a nice series of images of the Black-crowned Night Heron lift off and when the heron was in flight as it flew past me<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157407,"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":[4004,1533,4052,4122,627,626,4282,4094,3956,3957,4292,4001,3996],"class_list":["post-5001","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-adult","tag-black-crowned-night-heron","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-lift-off","tag-marsh","tag-night-heron","tag-night-herons","tag-nycticorax-nycticorax","tag-wading-bird","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1iF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101968,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/29\/adult-black-crowned-night-heron-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":5001,"position":0},"title":"Adult Black-crowned Night Heron In Flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost a year ago I had this adult Black-crowned Night Heron in my viewfinder as it flew in front of the Promontory Mountains at Bear River MBR.","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":"Black-crowned Night Heron flying in front of the Promontory Mountains, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-2033.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-2033.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-2033.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-adult-flight-mia-mcpherson-2033.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":111843,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/03\/31\/snow-weary-and-needing-a-bird-fix\/","url_meta":{"origin":5001,"position":1},"title":"Snow Weary And Needing A Bird Fix","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 31, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"More fresh snow on the ground this morning. I am snow weary. What I need is a bird, nature, gone exploring in the wild fix with no real or clear return time.","rel":"","context":"In "American Avocets"","block_context":{"text":"American Avocets","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-avocets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring male Red-winged Blackbird singing, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/red-winged-blackbird-male-spring-marsh-mia-mcpherson-1613.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/red-winged-blackbird-male-spring-marsh-mia-mcpherson-1613.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/red-winged-blackbird-male-spring-marsh-mia-mcpherson-1613.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/red-winged-blackbird-male-spring-marsh-mia-mcpherson-1613.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5320,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/07\/10\/black-crowned-night-heron-fly-by\/","url_meta":{"origin":5001,"position":2},"title":"Black-crowned Night Heron Fly By","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent yesterday morning photographing at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Box Elder County, Utah. Black-crowned Night Herons seemed to be everywhere on the south side of the auto tour loop, both adults and hatch year birds.","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":"Adult Black-crowned Night Heron in flight at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-flight-mia-mcpherson-4224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/black-crowned-night-heron-flight-mia-mcpherson-4224.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-crowned Night Heron in flight over the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-flight-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4478.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-flight-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4478.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-flight-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4478.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-flight-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4478.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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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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