This is the bird referred to by French-speaking south Louisianians as "bec croche," which means "crooked beak." Along with the yellow-crowned night heron, which they call "gros bec," for "big beak," they are considered a delicacy in the gumbo pot. These two birds were slaughtered in such large numbers in the 1930s and 1940s that they were put on the federal government's protected list.
I remember during that period watching thousands of these birds flying toward their roosting spot on the west side of the Mississippi River just before sunset every evening in the Summer and being blasted out of the sky by men standing on the levee on the east side of the river.
Click on "original" to get a really good look at him.