The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is a stocky, elegant heron of wooded wetlands, less familiar in Michigan than its Black-crowned cousin. The adult is soft gray with a boldly patterned black-and-white face — a black head marked by a white cheek patch and a pale yellowish crown that gives the bird its name — and glowing red eyes. Like other night-herons it is largely crepuscular and nocturnal, roosting by day and hunting in the low light of dusk and dawn, though it will also feed during the day, especially where crayfish are abundant.
This is a crayfish and crustacean specialist, equipped with a heavier bill than the Black-crowned Night-Heron for crushing hard shells, and it favors wooded swamps and wet woodlands where such prey thrives. A southern wading bird at the northern edge of its range, it occurs in Michigan as a rare and local visitor and occasional breeder, mostly from spring through summer. Finding a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron stalking a shady swamp or roosting in a streamside tree is a genuine prize for the state's birders.
Specializes in crayfish, crabs, and other crustaceans, crushing their hard shells with its stout bill, and also takes aquatic insects and other invertebrates. It hunts by stalking slowly in wooded swamps and along wet woodland edges, largely at dusk and dawn but also by day where crayfish are plentiful.
The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is more evenly gray with a black face bearing a white cheek patch and a pale crown, and longer legs. The Black-crowned is paler gray and white with a solid black crown and back and shorter legs.
It specializes in crayfish and other crustaceans, using a heavy bill to crush their shells, and also takes aquatic insects. This crustacean diet ties it to wooded swamps and wet woodlands where such prey is abundant.
As a rare and local visitor and occasional breeder, mostly spring through summer, at the northern edge of its range. Any Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the state is a notable find.
Juveniles are brown and spotted much like young Black-crowned, but are grayer, longer-legged, finer-spotted, and have a heavier all-dark bill. Adult plumage arrives in their third year.
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