Tigrisoma lineatum
Silhouette: Mannheim Reinhard Jahn (photograph) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The rufescent tiger heron (Tigrisoma lineatum) is a species of heron, birds in the family Ardeidae. It is found in wetlands from Central America through much of South America. The rufescent tiger 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 lineata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The rufescent tiger heron is now placed in the genus Tigrisoma that was erected by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The genus name Tigrisoma combines the Ancient Greek tigris, meaning "tiger" and somā, meaning "body"; the specific epithet lineatum is from the Latin lineatus meaning "marked with lines".
Two subspecies are recognised:
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | Maceió | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 6 | Asuncion | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 7 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parque das Aves | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Complejo Turistico de Quistococha | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | Tropical Manaus Zoo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Aqualife | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Rufescent Tiger Heron sighting in Madidi National Park on a given day, based on 81 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 17th most-seen of the 239 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Rufescent Tiger Heron in Madidi National Park on a given day, against about 20% in January–February, May–June and November, the lowest months. That is one of Madidi National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 290 mm in February. March and December have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufescent Tiger 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.
5th of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Rufescent Tiger Heron sightings, Madidi National Park ranks 5th at about 30%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 80%), Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 40%) and Iberá National Park (Argentina, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Ardeidae
The closest relatives of the Rufescent Tiger 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 Striated Heron (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufescent Tiger Heron is recorded against all the birds logged in Madidi National Park (81 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.
