The flow characteristics of a turbulent buoyant jet were experimentally investigated using a single-frame PIV system. The Reynolds number based on the nozzle exit velocity and nozzle diameter was about Re=5$ imes$10$^3$. The instantaneous velocity fields in the streamwise plane passing the jet axis were measured in the near field X/D <11 with and without the temperature gradient. By ensemble averaging the instantaneous velocity fields, the spatial distributions of mean velocity, vorticity, and higher-order statistics up to third order were obtained. The temperature difference of 10$^{C}$ does not affect a significant influence to the flow structure in the near field, but the total entrainment rate is increased slightly. The entrainment rate shows a linear variation with the streamwise distance in the region after X/D=5.0.