Yellow-crowned Night-Heron / Geelkruinkwak

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
© Bas Spek	© Arie Spaans	© Paul van Giersbergen
© Ivan van Londersele	© Ivan van Londersele	© Ivan van Londersele
© Ivan van Londersele	© Ivan van Londersele	© Hans Majong
© Hans Majong	French Guiana © Hans Majong

Yellow-crowned Night-heron: This bird is mainly seen along the coast on mudflats and near the mangrove, where it will breed in colonies with other herons and ibises. Normally it seeks food on its own and at night.
The first photo of a Yellow-crowned Night-heron was made by Bas Spek at the mouth of the Warappakreek in December 2009. Then a picture of a nightheron with young, made by Arie Spaans at a breeding colony in Suriname. And again one from the Warappakreek by Paul Baker in February 2013.
Dominiek Plouvier made the video of a bird with nice ornamental feathers.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Nyctanassa violacea
Order:	Ciconiiformes
Family:	Ardeidae, 20 in Suriname
Dutch:	Geelkruinkwak
English:	Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:	Krabechi
Spanish (Venezuela):	Chicuaco enmascarado
Portugese (Brazil):	Savacu-de-coroa
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Bihoreau violacè

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 186 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 16 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 186 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 16 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).