Field Trip Report: River Park Heron Watch

words and photos by Brighten Jelke

As a resident of Lincoln Square, my proximity to the North Branch of the Chicago River (and all of its amazing wildlife) is one of my favorite things about the neighborhood. During migration, I’m probably at Ronan or River Park upwards of five times a week.

The confluence of the North Branch and the North Shore Channel is well known to local residents as a “heron hangout”—I’ll even go ahead and claim that the number of Black-crowned Night Herons (BCNH) that gather here is second in Chicago only to the Lincoln Park Zoo rookery.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

There are at least a few herons present in the area year-round, but their numbers increase quite a bit during summer evenings, when night herons are most active. A glance at the eBird records for June 2026 reveals that the average number of BCNH reported was between 10 and 20 individuals per checklist. I once met someone at the park who said she came every day and didn’t leave until she saw one of the herons catch a fish; it often didn’t take long!

Since I enjoy visiting the herons and socializing, I figured others would too, and thus, the Heron Watch was born. One of my goals for this event was to introduce new people to River Park, and I really appreciated everyone's interest and enthusiasm for both this unique local hotspot and the herons that hang out there. Trip participants came from as far away as Hyde Park and Oak Park in spite of some summer storms which delayed the start of the event.

Due to the storms on June 10, only a small number of participants could make it to the park in the evening, but the weather cleared up for our group of eight and the birds were fairly active.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

We counted 17 Black-crowned Night Herons and one Green Heron, as well as a few other summer birds like swallows and Double-creested Cormorants. The views were excellent from the railing north of the boat launch, so we ended up standing in that area for about an hour, watching the herons fly in for the evening.

Because of the large number of weather cancellations, I offered the following Wednesday, June 17, as a sort of make-up date in addition to the original event, which another small group of people attended. We did get two Great Blue Herons that evening (in addition to the 11 Black-crowned and one Green) to complete the trifecta.

We didn’t have any luck on either of the nights spotting any of the Yellow-crowned Night Herons (YCNH) recently reported in the area. There has been at least one YCNH each year for the past few years and the last sighting on the North Branch was July 18, 2026, so chances are good they could show up at River Park again through the rest of this summer.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

If you weren’t able to join the heron watch this time around, I recommend taking some time to visit River Park on your own. The herons are pretty much guaranteed to be there every evening, all summer long, and there’s always something interesting going on. At least one participant said that this trip was their first time ever seeing a Black-crowned Night Heron. Field trip mission accomplished!