Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Black-crowned night herons provide me with a cross-country connection to my childhood stomping grounds. These hunched hunters made daily appearances in the ponds of my family’s Virginia farm and, decades later, I regularly encounter them during creek or lakeside walks in California. Because the species is the most widespread heron in the world, I’m sure they act as through-lines for many naturalists who live far from wherever they were raised.

The “night heron” name is a good one; the birds do much of their hunting during the twilight hours or overnight. Their scientific binomial, Nycticorax nycticorax, translates as “night raven” doubled up – “First name, Night Raven. Last name, Night Raven.” I’ve read that the “raven” piece is a result of their harsh, squawk of a call, often described as crow-like. To me, it sounds more like a mash-up of a tiny dog barking and a cat coughing up a hairball. It’s not pretty, but the bird’s dapper costuming more than makes up for any graceless croak-retches. And when an assassin is this finely dressed, look out! As I’ve written elsewhere, most people think of raptors as the supreme predators among birds, but don’t sleep on the herons. Especially not this one; night herons are tool users, and have been observed luring fish within striking range by tossing objects onto the water’s surface near where they wait.

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.