Pilherodius pileatus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The capped heron (Pilherodius pileatus) is a water bird endemic to the neotropics, inhabiting rainforest from the center of Panama to the south of Brazil. It is the only species of the genus Pilherodius, and one of the least known of the heron family, Ardeidae. It is superficially similar to the group of the night herons, but is active during daytime or at twilight.
The capped heron was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Ardea pileata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The capped heron is now the only species placed in the genus Pilherodius that was erected by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853. The genus name combines the Ancient...
Call0:37
Brazil · 2005
© Peter Boesman · XC228070 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 3 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 5 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 6 | Madidi National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 7 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 8 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Darién National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 10 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 11 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 4 | Valencia | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 5 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Edward Youde Aviary | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Capped Heron sighting in Madidi National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 150th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Capped Heron in Madidi National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, April, July and September–October, the lowest months. That is one of Madidi National Park's driest months, with about 65 mm of rain against 290 mm in February. March and December have too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Capped Heron sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Capped Heron sightings, Madidi National Park ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 40%), Manu National Park (Peru, about 30%) and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Ardeidae
The closest relatives of the Capped Heron that you can see in Madidi National Park (family Ardeidae, Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) are Cocoi Heron (about 40%), Great Egret (about 30%) and Rufescent Tiger Heron (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Capped Heron is recorded against all the birds logged in Madidi National Park (12 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.
