A rather compact heron-like bird with a fairly long tapering neck and head. The head is mostly brown with white supercillium and pale iris. Large, long, sharp, dirty-yellowish bill. White throat bordered with dark malar. Neck patterned with broad, bold brown vertical stripes. Heavy body with smudgy, slightly patterned, brown back. Brown, smudgy belly with indistinct stripes. Very short tail. Long yellow-greenish legs. In flight, the legs extend well past the tail and the bluish-gray flight feathers contrast with paler brown wing coverts. Superficially similar immature night-herons are shorter-necked, more grayish overall. In flight, night-herons show con-color wings and less leg and foot extension beyond the tail.

Length: 71 (cm) Wingspan: 107 (cm)

Voice:

Deep, slow: ga-lunk. Pumper-lunk. Unka-blunk. Flight call: squawk. Similar contact notes.

Habitat:

Prefers freshwater or brackish marshes with dense vegetation, especially grasses or reeds. Can be seen in wet meadows. Migrants may visit any body of water. Sometimes found in salt marshes in migration and winter.

Behavior:

Secretive. Camouflages well, often holding its neck up and pointing its head and beak straight up to blend in with grasses. Stalks prey slowly and carefully, then stabbing. Usually flies low and direct. May fly with neck extended or crooked.

Feeding:

Diet consists of fish, crayfish, eels, snakes, salamanders, frogs, small rodents, and insects.