We conducted a multi-year study (2010–2012) to investigate diel patterns of specific incubation behaviors of nesting black-crowned night-herons Nycticorax nycticorax (hereinafter night-herons) on Alcatraz Island, California. This dataset includes hourly percentages of specific incubation behaviors (i.e. inactivity, vigilance, preening, and nest maintenance) from ~230 video-monitored nest days across 83 nests (18 in 2010, 30 in 2011, and 35 in 2012).