#pelicaniformes

Black Heron aka Black Egret (Egretta ardesiaca), family Ardeidae, order Pelicaniformes, South Africa

The all white form of a great blue heron (Ardea herodias ssp. occidentalis) hunting for fish in Bahia Honda National Park, Florida, USA

Xenerodiops mycter was an unusual heron from the Oligocene (~30 million years ago) of what is now Egypt.

Known only from a partial skull and an arm bone, it's estimated to have stood around 70cm tall (~2'4") and was probably fairly similar in overall appearance to modern night herons. Its beak was powerfully built and had a distinctive downwards curve, shaped more like some types of stork than other herons – suggesting it may have had a convergently stork-like lifestyle, slowly walking through its marshy habitat probing around for prey and snapping up whatever its beak came into contact with.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea

"Its creepy! And really neat. They make such unsettling sounds and remind me of a dinosaur" "The only reason I know they exist is because an old man in a RV park told me. Also they look bonkers."

Also known as: shoe-billed stork, whalebill, whale-headed stork.

These large wading birds are incredibly solitary, including during their breeding season. While most other herons and waders prefer to form rookeries, shoebill will pair off and continue to raise their chick in isolation from other birds. They can be quite shy and are sensitive to human disturbance while breeding, though once the season has ended these birds are more tolerant of human presence.

They fish in freshwater swamps of central Africa, with their distribution largely dependent on lungfish populations, as those are a preferred prey for the shoebill. Papyrus levels also seem to play a role in their distribution, though they seem to avoid areas where that is the only reed dominating the swamp.

Last fun fact: shoebill will collect water to help cool their eggs down during incubation! They often will fill their bill twice, swallowing the first mouthful, and then will fly back to their nest to pour the water onto their eggs. What an ingenious idea for keeping the kids cool!

Sources:

Day 14- Prehistoric animal from your home country.

I picked the Saint Bathans Heron AKA Mataku otagoense, this was quite challenging to do since I don't really draw birds often and there were barely any resources- I couldn't even find a single reconstruction.