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.
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 most recent photo of it was on 17 August. It was still there yesterday.
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.
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.
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.
