21 August 2025
This 12 months an immature black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) spent mid July by means of mid August at Moraine State Park and generated a number of Uncommon Fowl Alerts.
Although Pennsylvania is inside their breeding vary these birds are uncommon in our neck of the woods. The adults don’t fly north however immature birds are adventurers who wander earlier than they head south for the winter. Click on right here to see what an grownup heron seems to be like (photograph by Brian Herman).
Martin Carlin first famous the younger heron on 18 July and checked on it daily thereafter. His most up-to-date photograph of it was on 17 August. It was nonetheless there yesterday.
Black-crowned night-herons aren’t the one ones to wander north. In August 2019 an immature yellow-crowned night-heron (Nyctanassa violacea) was an Uncommon Customer in Duquesne.
And nice egrets (Ardea alba) fly north to Montour County, Pennsylvania each August to pay a go to. Examine them on this classic article from 2018: Egrets Fly North Earlier than South.
In the meantime we’ll by no means discover if nice blue herons (Ardea herodias) make the identical transfer in late summer season. We see them 12 months spherical alongside Pittsburgh’s rivers.
