Family Herons, Egrets, Bitterns
Native to tropical coasts in the Old World, a single Western Reef-Heron created a sensation in 1983 by spending more than four months on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Since then the species has been found a few more times in eastern North America and many times in the Caribbean, suggesting that it may stray across fairly often from West Africa.

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

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Songs and Calls

Squawk similar to many related species.
Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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