Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Robert Howson
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
It was close to dusk as we floated down the margins of a slow moving river. There in the overhanging branches hunched a Nanking Night Heron, the ideal setting for this crepuscular bird. Also referred to as the Rufus Night Heron, this name may be misleading, for it is not strictly nocturnal, sometimes feeding during the day, particularly during wet weather. Besides Australia, this bird is also found in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia.
So why is the title “Nanking” included as part of the bird’s name? Its range is far south of China so why should the name of a Chinese city be given as part of its title? The answer goes back to Victorian times when cloth was imported from Nanking. This cotton fabric, known as nankeen, was buff or yellow-colored which John Gould, who named the bird, apparently thought resembled the color of its plumage. To make matters worse, its scientific name literally means “Scottish Nightraven”, a title that strains the imagination to justify.
Contrast this with a name from the Bible which is rather familiar to us, the name of Methuselah’s father, Enoch. We know very little of this ancient man except that he walked with God and was apparently translated, and his Hebrew name, חֲנוֹך Chanokh, meant dedicated. Now that’s a name that’s truly easy to understand, a dedicated man who walked with God.