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Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Nyctanassa violacea
Geelkruinkwak | Martinete coronado
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is a stocky night heron with a black-and-white head, blue-grey plumage and a heavy black bill. It feeds mainly on crabs and hunts both by day and at night. In the guide area it is a resident of mangroves and coasts from Mexico to Panama, joined in winter by birds from North America.
Voice
A short, sharp kwak or kok, slightly higher than that of Black-crowned Night Heron; heard mainly when flushed and at night.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
55–70 cm. A stocky heron with a short, thick neck, a heavy black bill and rather long legs. Adults are blue-grey, with dark, pale-edged feathers on the back and wings. The head is black with a white cheek patch and a white to pale yellow crown, which continues into short nape plumes. The eye is orange-red, the legs yellow and in the breeding season sometimes orange-red. Juveniles are grey-brown, with fine white spots on the upperparts and grey-brown streaked underparts; adult plumage is reached only after about three years. In flight the legs project well beyond the tail. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Young Black-crowned Night Herons Nycticorax nycticorax closely resemble young Yellow-crowned Night Herons, but are warmer brown, with larger, drop-shaped white spots on the wings, a thinner bill with a yellowish base and shorter legs that barely project beyond the tail in flight. Adult Black-crowned Night Herons have a black crown and mantle and pale grey wings. Boat-billed Heron Cochlearius cochlearius has a very broad, boat-shaped bill and large, dark eyes.
Habitat
Mangroves, tidal mudflats, rocky shores, coastal lagoons and estuaries; locally also along lowland rivers and in parks and gardens in coastal towns. It feeds mainly on crabs, also other crustaceans, snails, fish and insects, and hunts by day and by night, often in step with the tide. It breeds singly or in small groups, in mangroves or other trees.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In Mexico along the Pacific coast from Baja California and Sonora south to Chiapas, and along the Gulf coast from Tamaulipas through Veracruz and Tabasco to the Yucatán Peninsula. Further along both coasts and locally along lowland rivers throughout Central America, from Belize and Guatemala to Panama. Outside the guide area in the eastern United States, the Caribbean, the Galápagos Islands and along the coasts of northern South America, south to Peru and eastern Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
By day the species often sits on a branch in the shade of mangroves along lagoons and estuaries; at low tide it hunts crabs on open mudflats. In towns along the Pacific coast it sometimes sits around harbours and in parks.
Conservation status
Not threatened. In the guide area fairly common along the coast, but sensitive to mangrove clearance.
Scientific name
Nyctanassa violacea | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Ardea violacea; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Nyctanassa was introduced in 1887 by Stejneger. Nyctanassa is Greek, from nux, genitive nuktos, 'night' and anassa 'queen': queen of the night. violacea is Latin for 'violet-coloured', from violaceus. The specimen the first description was based on came from Carolina, North America.