Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Nyctanassa violaceaOrder: CICONIIFORMESFamily: Bitterns, Herons and Egrets (Ardeidae)

Related Birds

Black-crowned Night-Heron
Green Heron
American Bittern
Least Bittern
Limpkin

General

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Medium-sized, stocky heron with gray body and brown-and-white mottled wings. Face is black and white; crown is pale yellow and sweeps back as a plume. Eyes are large and red. Bill is heavy and black. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has white-spotted brown upperparts and brown-streaked white underparts.

Range and Habitat

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Breeds from southern New England to Florida and west to Texas, mainly near coasts but in the interior north to Minnesota and along Mississippi River and its larger tributaries. Spends winters along the Gulf Coast and on Atlantic coast north to South Carolina. Preferred habitats include wooded swamps and coastal thickets.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

Generally silent

Interesting Facts

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is listed as threatened in the state of New Jersey and endangered in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Occasionally it will prey on small turtles; its stomach secretes an acid capable of dissolving the shells.

Unlike other night herons, it is active during the day as well as at night.

A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "hedge", "pose", "rookery", and "scattering" of herons."

Author

Gary Owen Dick

Range Map for Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Medium-sized, stocky heron with gray body and brown-and-white mottled wings. Face is black and white; crown is pale yellow and sweeps back as a plume. Eyes are large and red. Bill is heavy and black. Legs and feet are yellow. Direct flight with steady, deep wing beats.

● Song: Generally silent

● Foraging & Feeding: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Food consists primarily of crustaceans, but also eats small fish, reptiles, amphibians, eels, insects, and mollusks; forages in open water, mud flats, and in partially submerged vegetation.

● Breeding & nesting: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Two to eight pale blue green eggs are laid in a nest made of sticks built in a tree or occasionally on the ground; nests singly or in small colonies, sometimes with other heron species. Incubation ranges from 21 to 25 days and is carried out by both parents.

● Similar species: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Adults are distinct; juvenile is distinguished from American Bittern by pale spotting on upperwing, red eye, lack of black neck spot, and stouter bill. Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron has larger spots, more slender, longer bill, and shorter legs.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with deep steady wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron: Breeds from southern New England to Florida and west to Texas, mainly near coasts but in the interior north to Minnesota and along Mississippi River and its larger tributaries. Spends winters along the Gulf Coast and on Atlantic coast north to South Carolina. Preferred habitats include wooded swamps and coastal thickets.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationStable

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight25.6 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America