Immature black-crowned night-heron, Point Reyes CA (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

21 August 2025

This year an immature black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) spent mid July through mid August at Moraine State Park and generated multiple Rare Bird Alerts.

Black-crowned night-heron range from Wikimedia Commons (yellow is breeding season)

Though Pennsylvania is within their breeding range these birds are unusual in our neck of the woods. The adults don’t fly north but immature birds are adventurers who wander before they head south for the winter. Click here to see what an adult heron looks like (photo by Brian Herman).

Martin Carlin first noted the young heron on 18 July and checked on it every day thereafter. His last photo of it was on 17 August.

Black-crowned night-herons aren’t the only ones to wander north. In August 2019 an immature yellow-crowned night-heron (Nyctanassa violacea) was an Unusual Visitor in Duquesne.

Yellow-crowned night heron in Duquesne, PA, 18 Aug 2019 (photo by Amy Henrici)

And great egrets (Ardea alba) fly north to Montour County, Pennsylvania every August to pay a visit. Read about them in this vintage article from 2018: Egrets Fly North Before South.

Great egret in Montour County PA, August 2018 (photo by Lauri Shaffer)

Meanwhile we’ll never notice if great blue herons (Ardea herodias) make the same move in late summer. We see them year round along Pittsburgh’s rivers.

Great blue heron (photo by Chuck Tague)