Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, adult

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Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, juvenile

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1. Description
2. Similar Species
3. Sound
4. Range
5. Other Names

A nocturnal heron of the southern swamps and coasts, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron can also be found breeding along wooded streams northward to Indiana and Illinois.

Description

• Size: 55-70 cm (22-28 in)
• Weight: 650-800 g (22.95-28.24 ounces)

• Medium-sized rather stocky heron.
• Black face and bill, with white cheek.
• Yellowish crown stripe.
• Gray body.
• Legs yellow.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Brown with tiny white spots on the wings and narrow, indistinct streaks on the underparts. Bill black.

Similar Species

• Juvenile and first-winter Black-crowned Night-Heron have partly yellow bills, larger wing spots, and shorter legs.
• American Bittern also bears brown streaks, but lacks white spots on the wings.

Sound

Call a loud, harsh squawk.

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Summer Range

Breeds along the Atlantic coast from New York southward, and up the large river systems in the center of the United States to Kansas and Indiana. Also southward to South America.

Winter Range

Winters along Atlantic and Gulf coasts and southward.

Other Names

Bihoreau violace (French)
Pedrete enmascarado, Chicuaco enmacarado (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Watts, B. D. 1995. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea). In The Birds of North America, No. 161 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists¿ Union, Washington, D.C.