First Provincial Record of Black-crowned Night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) in West Sumatra and the Summary of Its Sumatran Records

The Black-crowned Night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) is a known visitor in Sumatra with more sighting records in the eastern side of the island. Meanwhile, on the west, it was historically recorded from only two offshore islands, namely Nias and Enggano. During the waterbird survey from early 2018 at Pasir Jambak Beach of Padang City in the coastline of West Sumatra, a Night heron was spotted among the colony of mixed egret species. This is the first record of its kind in the province of West Sumatra, although, previous records cover almost all provinces in Sumatra. The summary of the compiled records of this species indicates that it is probably a vagrant along the western coastline, while it visits more frequently on the eastern side.

Introduction

This introductory chapter recounts how E. B. White's essay titled “Mr. Forbush's Friends” opened a new bird world to the author. The essay introduced the author to Edward Howe Forbush, who is best known for writing Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States, a three-volume set published in 1928. Within the pages of Forbush's work, the author found the expected information — breeding and feeding, size and color — and a bit of the unexpected in his reports on the “Economic Status” of each bird. In this section, he offers how the birds are perceived in the human economy, like the Black-crowned Night Heron, which “is accused of being injurious to the fishery interests.” Forbush was an inspiration for this collection of reports from the field, which expand with reflections on love, family, life, and death and engage a range of emotions from wonder to humor. And because birds magnify our relationship to the natural world, this collection include stories about habitat loss, declining species, birds that collide with buildings, or birds now extinct.