Black crowned night heron in PP (36399)🦩

Photo: Rhododendrites · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesPelecaniformesArdeidae
Birds

🦩Black-crowned Night Heron

Nycticorax nycticorax (Linnaeus, 1758)

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 Europe, Asia, 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.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
2
Photos
1
Measurements
12
vs you
≈ 1/77th of your weight
Also called
Night Heron
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendUnknown
Key measurements
Body mass
0.81 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
21 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Black-crowned Night Heron

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.81 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female590 kgWikidataQ126216
  • Male682 kgWikidataQ126216

Figures vary

  • 0.8 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.1 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.29 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.08 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.07 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
21 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Gestation
25 days
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Litter size
about 4
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Carnivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Wetland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Terrestrial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0.8 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Black-crowned Night Heron yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderPelecaniformes
  5. ›familyArdeidae
  6. ›genusNycticorax
  7. ›speciesNycticorax nycticorax
Full lineage
  1. orderSauria
  2. classBirds · Aves
  3. familyArdeidae
  4. genusNycticorax
All 11 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. familyArdeidae
  11. genusNycticorax
More

More about the Black-crowned Night Heron

Closest relative on this site
🐦 Grey Heron — last shared an ancestor ≈ 32 million years ago.
In other languages
ноћна чапља (sr), natthäger (sv), นกแขวก (th), Gece balıkçılı (tr), квак (uk), Vạc (vi) … and 28 more languages

Animals caught on camera

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