Black-crowned Night Heron Management & Conservation

To further the conservation and ecological understanding of the state-endangered black-crowned night heron, researchers at the Urban Wildlife Institute are studying the wild night heron colony that has been nesting at Lincoln Park Zoo and the surrounding park since 2010.

In 2010, a colony of roughly 100 members of this species began nesting at the southern end of Lincoln Park Zoo. This species is listed as endangered in Illinois and six other Great Lake states, largely due to population declines related to habitat loss in the region. Now, with upwards of 600 individuals, the Lincoln Park Zoo colony has grown to be the largest in the state of Illinois and has become a fixture of the zoo, nesting primarily over the red wolf habitat at the zoo’s Pritzker Family Children’s Zoo.

For the last 12 years, Urban Wildlife Institute scientists have been monitoring the health, growth, and movement of this population and studying how these birds utilize the Chicagoland urban environment. This work, conducted in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, contributes directly to night heron species management and the advancement of this conservation success story.