Black-crowned Night Heron

Hold fish and sneak closer

Hold raw cod, raw salmon, tropical fish or pufferfish, then sneak forward slowly. Do not sprint right up to it. It can notice fish in either your main hand or off hand.

Holding fish makes it less wary of you; sprinting makes it more wary. Individual temperament, distance and recent scares also affect its response. If it has started backing away or preparing to fly, stop and give it space.

Feeding on the ground

Drop raw fish onto stable ground nearby. If the heron is awake, grounded and not fleeing, it walks over, picks up the fish and swallows it. Eating dropped fish does not trigger taming.

Raw cod, raw salmon, tropical fish and pufferfish can attract it or be fed on the ground; cooked fish cannot. It may pick up fish contaminated with droppings, spit it out, and stop collecting food for a while.

Taming with raw cod or salmon

Hold clean raw cod or raw salmon and right-click the heron. Each accepted feeding consumes one fish and has a default 1/3 chance to tame it. Tropical fish, pufferfish, cooked fish and fish contaminated with droppings cannot tame it.

Wait if it is holding a fish, eating, or recovering after spitting out contaminated food. Hearts appear when taming succeeds, and it starts following. Feeding a tamed heron raw cod or salmon restores 1 heart. Night herons cannot breed.

You can also feed fish from your off hand. With an empty main hand and fish in the off hand, sneak-right-clicking will not switch companion commands by mistake. After taking your last fish, the heron will not immediately treat you as a threat while it is eating.

Companion commands

With both hands empty, the owner can sneak-right-click to cycle through Free, Follow, Stay, and Return to Nest (Roost). An occupied off hand prevents switching. Roost finds a suitable nearby perch; Stay stops following and lands to wait.

Changing a night heron's command no longer shows a text message. Switching modes or being startled will not remove a fish held for its owner. Servers can disable companion commands.

Following in flight and circling

In Follow mode, the night heron approaches on the ground first. It takes off for a short orbit after about 200 ticks of pursuit, beyond 12 blocks, or above a 2-block height difference. After the owner stops for about 20 ticks it looks for a safe interactive landing spot; while airborne it also tries to land after about 120 ticks. It never teleports to the owner.

It approaches its owner and lands safely before delivering a fish, then resumes following. Switch to Stay or Roost to let it rest.

Fish gifts

A tamed heron in Free or Follow mode can offer fish gifts. By default, every 5–10 minutes of eligible activity triggers a 50% chance of producing one raw cod or salmon in its beak. Both fish are equally likely.

Gifts require no water, live fish, fishing rod, or assigned task. A failed roll starts a new waiting period, as does delivering a fish.

Gift timer

The owner must be online, alive, in the same dimension, and within 32 blocks. The heron must be safe, have an empty beak, and be in its dusk or nighttime activity period. The default 32-block range applies to the gift timer, not to following.

The timer pauses when the owner is offline, too far away, or when the heron is frightened, staying, roosting or already carrying a fish. Reloading a save keeps the carried fish and remaining wait time; it does not grant offline gifts. The heron can follow by day, but does not accumulate gift time then. The gift toggle, owner range and interval are configurable.

Collecting the catch

The heron approaches its owner, lands safely, and places the fish on the ground in front of them. Alternatively, right-click within 3 blocks with an empty main hand, without sneaking and with a clear line of sight, to collect it directly into your inventory. Only the owner can collect it this way.

If your inventory is full and no fish stack has room, it keeps the fish without showing a text message. Make room and right-click with an empty hand to collect it. A retained fish can still be collected in Stay or Roost mode.

Wild heron fishing

At dusk and at night, it looks for fish in the water along the bank and stretches its neck to catch them when they are close enough. It needs nearby water, a bank it can stand on, and the willingness to forage. It does not keep fishing when full or frightened.

Wild and tamed alert behavior

A wild heron's response escalates from freezing and watching to backing away, running, low flight, or fleeing farther away. Repeated pursuit builds fear and may also startle nearby wild herons.

After taming, ordinary player proximity and nearby wild birds taking fright no longer scare it away. Taking damage still makes it evade danger, temporarily interrupting following or delivery.

Rest and bird baths

Wild herons rest near sheltered banks or vegetation during the day. A tamed heron in Follow mode still accompanies its owner during daylight. Water- or fish-filled Bird baths can be used by herons, but they will not approach immediately while sleeping, fleeing, or eating.

Food list

Raw cod, raw salmon, tropical fish and pufferfish.

These are the food tags in the current local build. Items contaminated with bird droppings are not treated as normal food for feeding.