BirdBrain Academy

Herons · Ardeidae

Black-crowned Night Heron sounds

Nycticorax nycticorax

A medium-sized heron found across much of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Learn bird sounds freeMore Black-crowned Night Heron recordings
Black-crowned Night Heron
Photo: ramidos, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Listen to the Black-crowned Night Heron

Each recording below is a short excerpt with its spectrogram, a picture of the sound. Time runs left to right and higher pitches sit higher up. Play each one, then look for the same shape in the next. Different recordings of the same bird help you learn the bird, not one clip.

Nocturnal Flight Call · recording 1 Spectrogram of a Black-crowned Night Heron nocturnal flight call: time runs left to right and pitch rises upward

Recorded by Philippe_Grange, la roche sur yon, 2024-09-09. XC933197 on xeno-canto, CC0 1.0. Five-second excerpt.

What to listen for

In nesting colonies, the Black-crowned Night Heron is described as very noisy, with calls commonly transcribed as quok or woc.

Many listeners write its call as “quok”. Treat a written sound as a memory aid; individual birds and regions vary.

What it looks like

Adults have a black crown and back, white or grey body, red eyes, short yellow legs, pale grey wings, and white underparts. They are stocky herons with shorter bills, legs, and necks; breeding adults may show slender white head plumes.

Where to find it

It breeds in fresh and salt-water wetlands throughout much of the world, nesting colonially in trees or protected ground sites such as islands or reedbeds. It waits at the water’s edge to ambush prey mainly at night, early morning, or evening, resting by day in dense trees or bushes.

BirdBrain regions that include this bird

  • Amazon Basin
  • Andean Region
  • California
  • Caribbean
  • Central Africa
  • Central America
  • Central Asia
  • East Asia
  • Eastern Africa
  • Eastern Canada
  • Eastern Europe
  • Eastern South America
  • Florida
  • Great Lakes
  • Indonesia
  • Madagascar
  • Mexico
  • Mid-Atlantic
  • Middle East
  • New England
  • Northern Africa
  • Northern Europe
  • Northern South America
  • Northwest
  • Plains
  • Polynesia
  • Rocky Mountains
  • South Asia
  • Southeast
  • Southeast Asia Mainland
  • Southern Africa
  • Southern Europe
  • Southern South America
  • Southwest
  • Texas
  • Western Africa
  • Western Canada
  • Western Europe
  • Western Russia

Did you know?

  • They are among the few heron species observed using bait to lure fish within striking range.
  • A colony has regularly summered at Washington, D.C.’s National Zoo for more than a century.
  • Their resilience in Oakland led to the Black-crowned Night Heron being named the city’s official bird.

Learn the Black-crowned Night Heron by ear

BirdBrain Academy teaches bird sounds with side-by-side listening and quizzes that use different recordings, so you learn the bird rather than one clip. Start with six free lessons, no signup needed. On your phone, Sound ID can name the birds singing around you.

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Related birds

Species notes are adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and checked for BirdBrain. Recordings come from xeno-canto under the licenses shown with each one. Photo: ramidos, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Identification guidance is educational; birds vary, so confirm unusual sightings with local experts or eBird.