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Lake Champlain Colonial Waterbird Database Project
Black-crowned Night Heron
This medium-sized stocky heron is considered
uncommon and local in the Lake Champlain Basin. Nesting colonies
can be found on the Four Brothers Islands in New York and
on Young Island in Vermont. Smaller colonies that may only
consist of a few pairs are suspected of occurring but have
not been documented. Black-crowned Night Herons nesting on
Young Island were impacted by the colonization of that site
by Double-crested Cormorants. Cormorants displaced the herons
as the population expanded and eventually forced them from
the island. Numbers of herons increased at the Four Brothers
Islands at the same time suggesting Young Island pairs may
have relocated to this site. A small number of Night Herons
returned to nest on Young Island in 2006 and 2007.
Estimated Number of Black-crowned Night
Heron
Breeding Pairs on Lake Champlain, 1982-2004.
| Year |
Young Island |
Four Brothers Island |
Bixby Island |
| 1982 |
|
95 |
|
| 1983 |
|
86 |
|
| 1984 |
|
85 |
|
| 1985 |
|
44 |
|
| 1986 |
|
44 |
|
| 1987 |
|
42 |
|
| 1988 |
? |
66 |
|
| 1989 |
? |
14 |
|
| 1990 |
? |
22 |
|
| 1991 |
? |
20 |
|
| 1992 |
? |
20 |
|
| 1993 |
? |
10 |
|
| 1994 |
? |
38 |
|
| 1995 |
0 |
59 |
? |
| 1996 |
0 |
90 |
? |
| 1997 |
0 |
173 |
0 |
| 1998 |
0 |
164 |
0 |
| 1999 |
0 |
227 |
0 |
| 2000 |
0 |
157 |
0 |
| 2001 |
0 |
40 |
0 |
| 2002 |
0 |
43 |
0 |
| 2003 |
0 |
30 |
0 |
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| ?
= nesting birds present but numbers |
|
unknown. |
|
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| Blank
spaces represent no data. |
Source
High Peaks Audubon Society’s annual surveys of the
Four Brothers Islands, 1982- 2002.
Unpublished data. Elizabethtown, NY.
John M. C. Peterson personal communication Return to the Lake Champlain Colonial Waterbirds home page
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