Black-crowned Night Heron is not exactly a rare bird, in fact it is extremely widespread worldwide, but in Western Bangkok there is an amazing spectacle featuring these birds at the rear of Wat Phuttabucha, a little known temple, to the west of the Chao Praya river. At the rear of the temple is a canal with large overhanging trees where dozens of these birds gather on wires, posts and branches waiting to catch fish. Lots of people come to feed fish and pigeons with loaves of bread and huge shoals of fish thrash around as they are fed, although most of them are far too big for the Night Herons to eat. Instead it seems that they sit and wait for smaller prey to be forced to the surface by the commotion.

A whole knot of electrical cables run alongside the canal and these serve as a favourite vantage point for the Night Herons. These cables are on the opposite side of the canal, probably no more than about 15 feet away.

A number of posts that seem to have randomly been hammered into the water just for the benefit of the birds are much appreciated too.

In fact they are not fussy where they sit and all of these photos were taken while a lady was only a few feet away in her little boat and there was a constant stream of people and motorbikes extremely close too; they are not shy.

I am constantly amazed at how many birds manage to exist in such a huge urban mess in Bangkok  and this collection of Black-crowned Night Herons at Wat Phuttabucha is one of the situations in which birds are alongside humans in an urban setting that has the most visual impact that I have witnessed in Bangkok.

I think the photograph above pretty much sums up the situation of birds alongside people at Wat Phuttabucha.

The map above will give the location of the temple should any one reading this wish to visit for themselves.