Oakland's official bird among those threatened with removal of downtown trees for housing complex

In downtown Oakland at the corner of 12th and Harrison streets, four large Indian laurel ficus trees surround a vacant lot.High in the canopies every spring and summer during breeding season, you'll spot black-crowned night herons, alongside snowy egrets. For years the dense trees have hosted nearly a hundred nests. The massive urban bird colony or rookery is the largest in the city.The black-crowned night heron is the official bird of Oakland, thanks to the 3rd graders at Park Day School, who in 2017 launched an initiative to protect the birds, describing the heron as "a cool and funky bird, just like Oakland.""They thought the black-crowned night heron represented Oakland really well because of how resilient it is," Ryan Nakano of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance said.Nakano hopes that this funky, cool bird will become more resilient than ever. On the lot, there's a plan to develop 64 units of affordable housing, which is bound to have an impact on the birds' leafy habitat."I believe th