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First Documented Black-crowned Night Heron Predation on a Common Gallinule Chick

Adult black-crowned night heron perched among vegetation
Research · Ecology

An adult black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) was documented capturing and swallowing an approximately 15-day-old common gallinule (Gallinula galeata) chick at Lake Yahuarcocha in the Ecuadorian Andes. The peer-reviewed short communication describes this as the first documented predation of a common gallinule by a black-crowned night heron.

A chick lagged behind the family group

The observation was made on 11 March 2023 at 13:59 in a mixed waterbird colony at 2,190 m above sea level in Imbabura Province. An adult female gallinule and two chicks were feeding and moving across floating vegetation while several night herons rested nearby.

One chick fell behind as the family passed a perched adult night heron. The heron seized the chick by the neck and swallowed it immediately, before the chick could vocalise. The female gallinule and the second chick appeared not to notice the attack.

The event occurred among stands of totora bulrush and invasive water hyacinth used by several waterbirds for feeding, shelter and nesting. Black-crowned night herons, snowy egrets and western cattle egrets also nest on the small vegetated islands at Yahuarcocha.

The record expands the known prey spectrum

Black-crowned night herons are mainly crepuscular and nocturnal but can also forage during daylight. They are opportunistic predators with a broad diet that includes fish, invertebrates, reptiles, small mammals and birds. Predation on young birds, including conspecific chicks and great egret chicks, has been documented previously.

The Yahuarcocha observation therefore adds common gallinule to the documented prey spectrum and records a previously unreported trophic interaction between the two species. The author also notes that it appears to be the first documented case of black-crowned night heron predation on a member of the rail family Rallidae.

This was a single opportunistic observation. It demonstrates that the interaction can occur within a mixed high-Andean waterbird colony, but it does not show how frequently night herons prey on gallinule chicks or how important such predation is to either population.

Sources and image credit

  1. Mena-Valenzuela, P. (2026). Predation of the Common Gallinule Gallinula galeata (Rallidae) by a Black-crowned Night Heron Nyctycorax nycticorax. Revista Ecuatoriana de Ornitología, 12(1), 45–50. https://doi.org/10.18272/reo.v12i1.4053Primary peer-reviewed short communication published 24 June 2026. At Lake Yahuarcocha in Imbabura, Ecuador, an adult black-crowned night heron captured and consumed a common gallinule chick approximately 15 days old. The author describes it as the first documented predation between these two species.

Image: Alejandro Bayer Tamayo — wild adult black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli) photographed in Colombia, 2 March 2015; Wikimedia Commons / Flickr; representative species image, not the bird from the Ecuador predation event · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source

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