The Yellow-crowned night-heron (Nyctanassa violacea) is a fairly common bird on Florida's beaches. They can be found almost every morning along Florida beaches stalking ghost crabs. Sometimes, although not very often, they will go after sea turtle hatchlings. I found this night heron eating a hatchling loggerhead turtle this morning along Juno Beach. Unfortunately, the loggerhead was already dead and I was forced to watch nature take it's course. Night herons will sometimes stand above a ghost crab hole for tens of minutes while waiting for a crab to pop out of the sand. They then swiftly snatch them in their beak and proceed to swing their head back and forth until most of the legs fall off the crab. The night heron did the same thing with this turtle before swallowing the poor little guy.
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