The "penguin on the run" at the zoo? It's actually the top cosplayer in the bird world - the night heron!

At first glance, the above picture seems to be all penguins, but in fact, there is a bird that is good at "imitation" mixed in. And not only penguins, this mimicking master can also transform into many kinds of birds, making it difficult to distinguish. Today we will meet the top "Coser" in the bird world - the night heron.

Image credit: Jean-Marie Gauthier

The Crow at Night

Night heron (scientific name: Nycticorax nycticorax) is a medium-sized wading bird of the order Ciconiiformes, family Ardeidae, genus Nycticorax. It is commonly found in wetlands, river fields or ponds, and feeds on a variety of small fish and shrimps. It is distributed in my country from the Songhua River in Jilin in the northeast to Hainan Island in the south. Adult night herons are clearly different from juveniles. The crown and back of adult birds are blue-black, and can also reflect metallic luster. The neck to the chest is white, with three white silky feathers on the back of the neck, and the wings and tail are grayish white.

Adult night heron Photo credit: Melissa James

Juveniles are brown with obvious white spots; the white spots disappear in the second year of adulthood.

The left is a juvenile, the right is a sub-adult. Image credit: Alex Lamoreaux

When it comes to the Ardeidae, the egrets that people are more familiar with may be the ones described by the poet Du Fu: "Two orioles sing in the green willows, and a line of egrets fly into the blue sky." Compared to the elegant body of the egrets, the night herons are more like people who have gained weight in middle age. Not only are their heads bigger, but their necks are also thicker. They also don't have the long legs of egrets, and their bodies appear to be more sturdy. But don't be fooled by the "simple" appearance of the night herons. They are actually quite "scheming". Whenever they find prey, they will squat and wait for the opportunity. At this time, the night herons look a bit like an old man "fishing alone in the cold river snow" from a distance.

Caring for the "Old Night Heron" Source: Xiaohongshu@大大大大草

The crouching night heron will slowly approach its prey, and when it is within attack distance, it will quickly prey. However, some friends may wonder, since the night heron has such a short neck, doesn't it have to wait for the prey to feed itself into its mouth? In fact, as a member of the heron family, the night heron's neck is not short, but it is retracted most of the time, and generally only extends when courting or hunting.

Figure 6: You wouldn’t have thought that a night heron’s neck is actually longer than its prey’s life span.

As a nocturnal bird, the night heron is basically inactive and silent during the day, standing on tree branches to rest. Interestingly, if there are multiple species of herons living together, such as egrets, night herons, cattle egrets and other heron species living on the same tree, since the night herons like to live in high places, as the saying goes, the higher you stand, the farther you can see, so the night herons during the day will also act as guards for the entire small group, and can also better find the surrounding food sources.

Is there a penguin standing on it?

At dusk, night herons begin to fly out of their nests and do not return to their habitats until the early morning. At night, night herons are not as low-key as during the day. They hunt, dance to mate, chase and sing. Moreover, this bird is not good at singing, but when it does, it is amazing. In urban areas where there are many night herons, residents are often woken up by the "quack...quack..." bird calls at night.

This crow-like call means that the night herons are fighting for food or hoping to attract the attention of the opposite sex. The night heron's scientific name "Nycticorax" means "night crow" , referring to the species' nocturnal habits and crow-like shrill calls.

Who does this look like? Image source: reddit

Everything is a night heron, except the night heron itself

Although night herons are not particularly famous among herons, they are famous for being "conspicuous" among other birds and even everything else. The origin of the story has to start with the night heron and the penguin. The exact time is no longer traceable. At that time, in the penguin house of a zoo, the keeper was feeding the penguins, and then a night heron mixed in with the penguin group and ate the fish fed. It was also mistaken for a "real penguin" because it looked very similar to a penguin.

Image source: See watermark

As the photo of the night heron and penguin in the same frame spread, the night heron's amazing "imitation" ability was discovered, and then netizens found traces of other birds on it, such as wading birds such as gulls, seagulls, and water chickens. This level of classification is relatively normal, and the subsequent trend is even more outrageous. Whenever netizens see something similar to a night heron in a certain action or expression, they will classify it as a night heron. So much so that netizens' evaluation of the night heron is: the night heron can be everything except the night heron itself.

Image source: Xiaohongshu@A Snake's Daily Bird Watching

So why are night herons mistaken for other birds? There may be two reasons: First, the appearance of night herons is similar to that of many birds , such as a sturdy body or a large head, which is common in some water birds. In addition, night herons have a neck-retracting behavior. This makes them look different from other heron species, and thus they are associated with other birds.

Image credit: Markus Craig

The second is behavior. Because night herons are active mostly at night, it is difficult to observe them during the day. At night, due to the poor light, they are easily confused with other nocturnal birds. In addition, the prey and behavior of night herons overlap with those of many water birds, so they may be mistaken for other birds with similar predation habits. However, in the current Internet wave, it is not important who the night heron resembles. What is important is that it is who people need the night heron to resemble.

References:

[1] Zhou Shengling. Research progress on night herons[J]. Tibet Science and Technology, 2020(8):3. DOI:10.3969/j.issn.1004-3403.2020.08.004.

[2] Zhu Xi, Yang Shide. Study on the breeding habits and growth and development of night herons[J]. Zoological Research, 2000(1):58-64.DOI:10.3321/j.issn:0254-5853.2000.01.012.

Author: Fish

Winner of the Silver Award for Outstanding Science Popularization Works of China Science Writers Association

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