As best I can tell, this is a juvenile yellow-crested night heron, because when I search through pictures of herons that are not great blues, that’s the one this mostly matches. But… that glare, y’know? Here’s a dinosaur descendant that does not give a, uh, damn. It just stood there and looked around — uh, glared around — for about 45 minutes while I just kept snapping from a few yards away. Do not address this bird as “Hey, kid.”

I have never seen an adult yellow-crested night heron, maybe because by the time they’re adults, they’re night creatures. (It doesn’t seem right to call them “night owls.”) If you happen to search the internet for images of them, they look nothing like this, and are pretty cool.

October 8, 2017. Nikon D7100 (DX sensor), Nikon 70–300mm lens at 300mm (35mm equivalent: 450mm), f/11, 1/180, ISO 560.