Black-Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

Ok, this is probably cheating a bit as I saw these guys at the duck pond at the Rancho Simi Community Park, but the park is immediately adjacent to, and contiguous with the arroyo so I think it's reasonable to view the two as essentially one and the same habitat. Moreover, I have seen Black-Crowned Night Herons in the arroyo, but have simply not been quick enough to get footage, so the images below will serve as surrogates for the ones that got away.

Anyhoo, depicted below are both adult and juvenile Black-Crowned Night Herons. The juvenile is perched on the rock while the adults are in the trees. The Black-Crowned Night Heron is the most wide-spread Heron in the world ranging over five continents. It inhabits salt, brackish and freshwater marshes, streams and lakes where it fees on aquatic invertebrates, fish, insects, amphibians and small reptiles. It nests colonially in trees and cattails. Because the Black-Crowned Night Heron's is so widely distributed, it is a good indicator species of an ecosystem's overall health.