Zebrilus undulatus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The zigzag heron (Zebrilus undulatus) is a species of heron in the family Ardeidae, also including egrets and bitterns. It is in the monotypic genus Zebrilus. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical swamps.
The zigzag heron was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the herons, cranes, storks and bitterns in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea undulata. Gmelin based his description on the zigzig bittern from Cayenne that had been described by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume work A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had in turn based his account on "Le petit butor de Cayenne" that had been described and illustrated in Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The zigzag heron is the only species placed in the genus Zebrilus that was introduced in 1855 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name Zebrilus is a diminutive of the French zèbre, "zebra". The specific epithet... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 4 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Zigzag Heron sighting in Tambopata National Reserve on a given day, based on 30 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 442nd most-seen of the 550 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Zigzag Heron in Tambopata National Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in March to January, the lowest months. That is one of Tambopata National Reserve's wettest months, with about 420 mm of rain against 45 mm in July.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Zigzag 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.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Zigzag Heron sightings, Tambopata National Reserve ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 10%) and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, under 5%).
Same family: Ardeidae
The closest relatives of the Zigzag Heron that you can see in Tambopata National Reserve (family Ardeidae, Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) are Snowy Egret (about 20%), Cocoi Heron (about 20%) and Capped Heron (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Zigzag Heron is recorded against all the birds logged in Tambopata National Reserve (30 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.
