Nycticorax nycticorax
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) or black-capped night heron, commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. In Australasia it is replaced by the closely related Nankeen night heron (N. caledonicus), with which it has hybridised in the area of contact.
The black-crowned night heron was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with herons, cranes and egrets in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea nycticorax, based on specimens from southern Europe. It is now placed in the genus Nycticorax that was described in 1817 by the English naturalist Thomas Forster for this species. The epithet nycticorax is from Ancient Greek and combines nux, nuktos meaning "night" and korax meaning "raven". The word was used by authors such as Aristotle and Hesychius of Miletus for a "bird of ill omen", perhaps an owl. The word was used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1555 and then by subsequent authors for a black-crowned... Wikipedia →
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-crowned Night Heron sighting in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 171st most-seen of the 328 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-crowned Night Heron in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March–September and December–January, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-crowned Night Heron sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
73rd of 139
Of the 139 parks where we can rate Black-crowned Night Heron sightings, Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve ranks 73rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 60%), Keoladeo National Park (India, about 60%) and Channel Islands National Park (United States, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Ardeidae
The closest relatives of the Black-crowned Night Heron that you can see in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (family Ardeidae, Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) are Cocoi Heron (about 50%), Striated Heron (about 50%) and Rufescent Tiger Heron (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-crowned Night Heron is recorded against all the birds logged in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (23 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
