Nyctanassa violacea
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The yellow-crowned night heron (Nyctanassa violacea) is one of two species of night heron in the genus Nyctanassa. Unlike the black-crowned night heron, which has a worldwide distribution, the yellow-crowned is restricted to the Americas. It is known as the bihoreau violacé in French and the pedrete corona clara or yaboa común in some Spanish-speaking countries.
The yellow-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 violacea. Linnaeus based his account on the "crested bittern" that had been described in 1729–1732 by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in the first volume of his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Linnaeus specified the type locality as North America, but this has been restricted to the Carolinas following Catesby. The yellow-crowned night heron is now placed together with the extinct Bermuda night heron in the genus Nyctanassa that was introduced in 1887 by the Norwegian born zoologist Leonhard Stejneger. Its congener, the Bermuda night... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guayaquil | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sedgwick County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Saint Louis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Virginia Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | San Antonio Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Henry Vilas Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Salisbury Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Zoológico Tamatán | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 9 | Aquarium of the Pacific | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Florida Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | South Carolina Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron sighting in Padre Island National Seashore on a given day, based on 35 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 104th most-seen of the 171 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Padre Island National Seashore on a given day, against under 5% in October to July, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-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.
42nd of 51
Of the 51 parks where we can rate Yellow-crowned Night-Heron sightings, Padre Island National Seashore ranks 42nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 50%), Utría National Natural Park (Colombia, about 40%) and Channel Islands National Park (United States, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Ardeidae
The closest relatives of the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron that you can see in Padre Island National Seashore (family Ardeidae, Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) are Great Blue Heron (about 60%), Reddish Egret (about 40%) and Great Egret (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is recorded against all the birds logged in Padre Island National Seashore (35 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.
