Black Crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax. Common and globally widespread, the subspecies N. n. hoactli is found in North America, breeding throughout the U.S. and wintering in Mexico. Waiting at the edges of water, they hunt crepuscularly for small fish, crustaceans, frogs, and aquatic insects. Along with a few other heron species, they are known to do the behavior of bait fishing, where they place a leaf or similar object on the water and wait for an opportune moment to capture a desired fish, altering the bait object as necessary. Black Crowned Night Herons are different from their other heron relatives in stature and look more closely like a wading water bird. During breeding season, they create nests in trees in a colony that can be quite noisy.