Black-crowned Night Heron juvenile / Nycticorax nycticorax

Yesterday late afternoon, 7 October 2015, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park on the way home from a volunteer shift. The weather was beautiful, and I'm supposed to do lots of walking (which I don't). There was another bird that I would have liked to see, but I was out of luck for that one. However, a young couple mentioned that they had just seen a young Black-crowned Night Heron, and I was so lucky that it was still there. From a distance, the bird was so well-camouflaged against the background. Unfortunately, the background was not photogenic at all, no matter where one stood, but it was so nice to see this beautiful young bird. Usually, when I have seen a Black-crowned Night Heron, it has been far, far away except for one occasion, when a young one flew right over my head at the Frank Lake blind - previously posted photo added to a comment box below.

"Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-crowned_night_heron