Birds, Wildlife, and Nature
The Black-crowned Night Heron and the Case of Mistaken Identity
In this case of misidentification, naming the bird incorrectly could have negative impacts
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” — William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
I misidentified a bird in the story The Colorful Green Heron. While some of the depicted birds are indeed Green Herons (Butorides virescens), at least one is a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). As in Shakespeare’s line about roses from Romeo and Juliet, so too can birds be fascinating, colorful, and beautiful creatures by whatever names we call them. But for some people, accurate bird identification is important.
Humans, notably scientists, like to name items and organize them in orderly taxonomies. One way they do this in the plant and animal kingdom is through a specimen’s shape and structure, or morphology. Since I started to use the eBird mobile app and website to track all intentional bird sightings, I have come to realize how important it is to accurately identify the birds I record.
Ornithologists, along with other scientists and bird enthusiasts, count on accurate…
