Man I thought I was familiar with most of the birds in PA........I looked out the back window tonight in time to see one of these buggers fly onto a limb eye level with me.
It was sooooooo different from any otherheron I had seen I wasn't sure WHAT I was looking at. Seemed like it flew funny too, almost like it was in slow motion.
I grabbed the binos and a pencil and sketched him making note of the markings and colors, but what most struck me was the long white plume off the back of his crown.
Turns out he's a Black Crowned Night Heron (Not sure why he is called a BLACK because he looked like a Kingfisher on steroids![:-]Very gray blue with a blue beak.

Anyway, just thought I'd share........not sure if they are fairly rare or not but I'm 35yrs old and that's the first one I've ever seen to my knowledge. BEAUTIFUL bird. I have a nice little stream with lots of fish and frog life and that's the 3rd heron species I have seen in my backyard this year.

Cool sighting... Don't ya just love seeing newbirds for the first time. I used to to think bird watching was silly when I was young. Now I am hooked on it.

Funny you mention the black crowned night heron. There are only 4 known nesting areas in the state for these birds. Well, there was actually only three until I found the fourth one roughly 3 years ago. I have even rescued a few of the young ones who fell from the tree. I believe the largest nesting area is in York Pa. Pretty cool looking birds but load as heck come evening.

Are they the ones I heard about nesting around Kiwanis Lake right in town in York?
That might explain the sighting although I'm 8ish miles above that, I'm pretty close to some other good habitat with the wide, shallow Conewago Creek and Pinchot Lake not far.

I'm a transplant from Schuylkill Co. 7yrs ago which could also explain why I have never seen one before this as well.

Yep, that would be them. They nest in pine trees close to streams and lakes. The ones that I rescued I took to the york county bird rescue.

That's a really cool looking bird

Interesting reading! I love learning new stuff about wildlife.

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=162403