This widespread Australian heron is nocturnal and searches for food in wetlands.
Adults have a cinnamon-brown back, pale underparts, a black crown and yellow legs.
It hides in foliage by day, feeds from dusk into the night and nests in colonies during the breeding season.
In Australia it can breed throughout the year depending on food availability, sometimes in mixed colonies with egrets and cormorants. Both sexes incubate in a loose stick platform nest over water.
Adults have a dark olive-green bill and yellow eyes. White nuptial plumes extend from the back of the head during breeding.
Juveniles are heavily spotted and streaked white, brown, and orange-brown. As they mature, the black adult cap develops before the body loses its streaking.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.