NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Nyctanassa violacea (Linnaeus, 1758)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
A Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea perched atop a juniper in Cape May County, NJ.
Chuck Homler (FocusOnWildlife.Me) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
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.
Wikipedia contributors, Yellow-crowned night heron; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T11:32:53.566030+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Nyctanassa violacea (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- Yellow-crowned Night Heron
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Pelecaniformes
- Family
- Ardeidae
- Genus
- Nyctanassa
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classAves
- orderPelecaniformes
- familyArdeidae Leach, 1820
- genusNyctanassa Stejneger, 1887
- speciesNyctanassa violacea (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Nycticorax violaceus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Linnaeus, 1758) | synonym |
| Ardea violacea Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Middle America
North America
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=174842 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:484XH. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.