Yellow-crowned night heron spotted in Calgary is 2nd time species seen in Alberta

The recent sighting of a yellow-crowned night heron surprised Calgary's birding community because its usual habitat is in Mexico and South America.

Naturalist Brian Keating said the interesting looking bird was first spotted in early October, but it wasn't until its photo landed on the app eBird, one of the world's largest databases for bird observations, that it was realized to be a yellow-crowned heron.

"It was posted on the rare bird alert the next day and all kinds of people have seen it.… Some have come quite a long ways away, even from areas north of Edmonton and as far south as Lethbridge and farther," he told The Homestretch on Monday.

He says the heron is at least 1,000 kilometres away from familiar territory and his best guess as to why it landed in Calgary is that it may have taken a wrong turn.

"I have a theory that perhaps some birds just simply get it wrong," he said.

"This was an immature, yellow-crowned night heron … it may have just gotten its directional bearings confused."

Keating says he got a glimpse of the bird himself while it was sitting in an old cottonwood tree at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

"When I saw it, I think it was just preparing to go out for the evening hunt. It was scratching and stretching and basically looking a lot more alert than its daytime roosting behaviour."

And while the find is surprising, he says bird migration can evolve, so it's possible more yellow-crowned night herons will make their way here.

"Birds are changing migratory patterns ever so slightly, and sometimes quite drastically, all the time. And this individual may have been nature's experiment," he said.

"But it is a big deal for the Calgary birding community. It's only the second time this bird has been seen in this province." 

Heron facts

There are seven types of night herons in the world. Keating says he's come across some in Africa, South America, Australia and on various Pacific islands.

"We've often found them when we've been out at night in the Galapagos. I remember watching one in recent years, it was dockside with street lights illuminating the bird as it was hunting for little fish that were coming up into the shallower waters."

For those interested in spotting one in Calgary, Keating says the herons are thick-billed, stout, medium-sized with short necks and legs.

"The young birds, like the one that we had here last week, are brown and flecked with white," he said.

As the name implies, they are mainly active during the nighttime, hunting fish, frogs and small mammals.

"They rely heavily on crustaceans, especially crabs," he said. "I watched the one on the Galapagos Islands catch what's called a Sally Lightfoot crab, which is a bright orange crab, and it dismembered its legs."

Keating says you can usually find herons nesting in colonies on islands, in a metre-wide nests of trigs in trees or shrubs.

"It's obviously way too soon to tell. But it may be that someday we see yellow-crowned night heron nesting here, too. They have been found as far north as southern Ontario and even Michigan in the United States," he said.

"So they are capable of of spending time here, no doubt about it." 

For more fascinating stories about Alberta's wildlife from naturalist Brian Keating, visit his website and check out these stories:

• Cold weather brings more snow geese and robins to southern Alberta
• She's just not that into you: Male grouse mating dance mostly performative in the fall, says naturalist
• Don't call them ladybugs, says naturalist Brian Keating
• Calgary naturalist recounts memorable sighting of grizzly bear family

With files from The Homestretch.