Description:

A stocky, large-headed, thick-necked heron with large eyes, swollen-looking bill and rather short yellowish legs. Adult has black crown and mantle contrasting with grey wings and whitish underparts. Juvenile boldly streaked and spotted. Immature has unstreaked brown mantle/scapulars.

Distribution:

Uncommon summer visitor and passage migrant through the western parts of Gilgit-Baltistan. Occurs around freshwater or brackish marshes, lakes, pools and rivers with surrounding cultivation, reed-beds or vegetation. Found up to 3000m.

Behavior:

Mainly passive feeder, especially standing and walking slowly, but also including running, bill vibrating, hovering, feet first diving, plunging, underwing feeding and swimming feeding. Opportunistic feeder, with very varied diet, including fish, frogs, toads, tadpoles, lizards, insects and their larvae, earthworms, spiders, crustaceans, small rodents, bats, and eggs and chicks of other species.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Black-crowned Night-Heron in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Black-crowned Night-Heron

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.