Where the Miami River meets the Everglades I saw hundreds of these Birds feeding. They were not shy, allowing us to push the skiff within one hundred feet before they swirled off a short distance and alighted. They were catching a small crustacean resembling hellgamites and their tameness may have been due to reluctance in leaving such a feast.
The young are fed by regurgitation, the parent standing indifferently by the nest until a squalling youngster seizes its bill and by a series of jerks forces the food into its own throat.
NEST — a slight platform of twigs, usually in small trees or bushes close to water. Sometimes in tall trees forty feet up.
EGGS — 4 to 5; pale bluish green.
Southern and eastern North America. Casual, north to Vermont, Maine, Quebec and Nova Scotia.