Belize Biodiversity Information System NAME - Yellow-crowned Night-heron FAMILY - Ardeidae SCIENTIFIC NAME - Nycticorax violaceus violaceus SYNONYMS - Ardea violacea and Nyctanassa violacea REFERENCES - 1 and 2 National abundance, Conservation or Economic Status Reference Resident, species present all year. 32 Winter visitor - migrant. 32 Apparently secure in Belize 31 Common: high density, likely to be seen in many places 31 Resident, species present all year. 3 U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty 25 District Reference Belize 4 Cayo 4 Corozal 11 Orange Walk 4 Stann Creek 9 Toledo 24 Administrative Unit Occurrence Temporal Reference Chiquibul Forest Reserve Sighting Dry season 12 Payne's Creek Wildlife Sanctuary Sighting Wet season 15 Shipstern Nature Reserve Sighting Wet season 11 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 15 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 17 Rio Bravo Conservation Area 27 Gallon Jug 16 Gallon Jug 4 Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary Dry season 19 Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary 26 Half Moon Caye Natural Monument Permanent 22 Half Moon Caye Natural Monument 15 Burdon Canal Nature Reserve 7 Lamanai Archaeological Reserve Dry season 10 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop Accidental 21 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop Dry season 20 Northern Lagoon/Southern Lagoon (Prop 15 Private land, see comments Sighting Wet season 21 Private land, see comments Sighting Dry season 13 Private land, see comments 9 Private land, see comments Dry season 20 Private land, see comments 14 Private land, see comments 23 Private land, see comments 6 Private land, see comments 8 Private land, see comments Collected as voucher 30 Government land Collected as voucher August 29 Government land Sighting Dry season 19 Ambergris Cay 18 Cayes, other; see comments Dry season 19 Cayes, other; see comments Dry season 20 Monkey River Special Development Area Sighting Wet season 24 Caye Caulker Sighting Dry season 5 Hydrologic Association Reference New River Lagoon 27 Belize River 6 Macal River 8 Sittee River 9 New River 10 Raspaculo River 12 Elevation Reference 1-200 m 27 1-200 m 28 1-200 m 29 1-200 m 30 1:50,000 Quadrangle Reference 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 10 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 19 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 00' to 88 15' 5 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 16 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 17 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 28 17 30' to 17 45'; 89 00' to 89 15' 4 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 45' to 89 00' 28 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 15 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 20 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 21 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 27 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 20 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 28 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 30 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 10' to 88 30' 4 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 19 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 20 17 30' to 17 45'; 88 00' to 88 15' 5 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 45' to 89 00' 6 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 28 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 20 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 21 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 10' to 88 30' 7 17 15' to 17 30'; 88 00' to 88 10' 7 17 00' to 17 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 8 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 28 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 4 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 28 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 30' to 88 45' 4 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 00' to 88 30' 15 17 00' to 17 15'; 88 00' to 88 30' 29 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 12 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 30' to 88 45' 26 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 23 16 45' to 17 00'; 88 15' to 88 30' 9 16 30' to 16 45'; 88 30' to 88 45' 26 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 30' to 88 45' 15 18 15' to 18 30'; 88 00' to 88 15' 11 16 15' to 16 30'; 88 15' to 88 30' 24 16 00' to 16 15'; 89 00' to 89 15' 20 16 00' to 16 15'; 88 45' to 89 00' 21 17 00' to 17 15'; 87 30' to 87 45' 22 17 52'35" to 18 11'30"; 87 49' to 88 03' 18 17 45' to 18 00'; 88 45' to 89 00' 13 Holdridge Life Zone Reference Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 29 Tropical moist-transition to Subtropical 28 Subtropical wet 26 Subtropical moist 30 Subtropical moist 28 Subtropical moist 27 Marine 22 General Distribution Comments 32* Common northern semideciduous moist forest. Uncommon southern moist-wet evergreen broadleaf forests. Common coastal/low-lands savannas, inc. marshy areas. Common mangroves lowlands & coastal beaches. Common cayes inc. Ambergris. 3* "Rare in the summer," common in northern hardwood forests, uncommon in southern hardwood forests, common in coastal savannahs, common in mangroves & beaches along coastal mainland, common in cayes inc. Ambergris. 21* Big Falls Rice Farm; Punta Gorda 20* Big Falls Rice Farm; Caye Chapel; Blue Creek 19* Municipal airport 15* Ycacos Lagoon 14* USAID Office 13* Gold Button Ranch; observed nesting 9* Possum Point Biological Station 8* Sighted at or within 5 mile radius of Chaa Creek Cottages 6* Banana Bank Ranch References 1 A.O.U. 1983. Checklist of North American Birds. 6th Ed. 2 A.O.U. 1985, 1987, 1989. 35th-37th Supplements. 3 Wood, D.S.,R. C. Leberman, and D. Weyer. 1986. Checklist of Birds of Belize. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 12. 4 Miller, B. W., 1994. Belize Christmas Bird Counts, Twenty Year Summary. in prep. 5 McRae, E. 1993. Preliminary Check-list - Birds of Caye Caulker. 6 Duncan, M., W. Duncan. 1993. Banana Bank, Nov. 1, Checklist provided in lit. 7 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1993. Preliminary Avian Survey of Burdon Canal Nature Reserve. Unpublished report for the Forest Department 8 Carnegie Ornithological Group and Mass Audubon Ornithological Group, compilers. 1993. Chaa Creek Bird List. Unpublished list. 9 Anon. 1993. Bird Checklist for Possum Point Biological Station, Sittee River, Belize 10 Noble, B., B. Stewart, J. Dillon. 1994. Lamanai Bird List, Mid-October 1993 - 16 March 1994. 11 Meerman, J. 1993. Checklist of the Birds of the Shipstern Nature Reserve, Occasional Papers of the Belize Natural History Society. 2(10). pp. 71-81. 12 Mallory, E. 1993. Birds of the Upper Raspaculo, Belize: JSSEUR II. Unpublished report. 13 Platt, S. 1993. Wildlife Survey of Gold Button Ranch, Belize. Unpublished report. 14 McDuffie, P. 1993. Personal Bird List for Belize: September 1, 1989 - December 15, 1993. Unpublished list. 15 Russell, S. M. 1964. A Distributional Study of the Birds of British Honduras. Ornithological Monographs No. 1, A.O.U. 16 Miller, B., C. Miller. 1994. A working checklist of the birds of Gallon Jug. Unpublished list. 17 Anon. 1994 (August). Working Checklist, Birds of Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area. Unpublished list. 18 Forsythe, D. 1994. Unpublished Belize Trip list June 18-21. 19 Counsell, D.J.R., B. Etheridge. 1986. RAFOS Expedition to Belize. Unpublished report. 20 Hallchurch, T.T., compiler. 1982. Exercise King Vulture Belize 23 Feb.- 16 March. Unpub. report for the British Army Bird Watching Society. 21 Jenkins, P. G. 1982. The Royal Air Force Ornithological Society Belize Expedition, 1981. 80.pp Unpublished report. 22 Meadows, M. 1982. A Trip to Half Moon Caye 26-30 July, 1982. Belize Audubon Society Bulletin. 14(6):1-2. 23 Meerman, J., T. Boomsma. 1995. False Sittee Point, Stann Creek District, Belize. Biological and Physical Survey 1995. p. 19. 24 Meerman, J.C. ed. 1995. Monkey River Special Development Area Stann Creek District, Belize. Belize Tropical Forest Studies Publication #5. Appendix: Bird List. Unpublished Technical report for B.E.S.T. 25 Title 50 Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B., Part 10.13: List of Migratory Birds. U.S. Government Printing Office: 1985 0-488-794. (Lists all species of migratory birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703-711). 26 Kamstra, J. May 1987. An Ecological Survey of the Cockscomb Basin, Belize. Masters Thesis. York University, Ontario, Canada 27 Vallely, A. C., A. A. Whitman. 1996. The birds of Hill Bank, northern Belize. Unpublished report for Programme for Belize. 28 Miller, B. W. 1997. Belize Christmas Bird Count Summary 1970-1995. Data from American Birds Vol. 28-50 including 1973-1996. 29 Panza, R. 1997. Carnegie Museum, Division of Birds, Holdings of Belize specimens through Jun. 1, 1997. 30 Hinshaw, J. 1997. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology bird holdings through Jun. 1, 1997. 31 Miller, B.W., C.M. Miller. 1997. Avian Risk Assessment for Belize, Species at Risk and of Conservation Concern. Report to Programme for Belize/TNC Wings of America Program. 32 Garcia, J., S. Matola, M. Meadows, and C. Wright. 1994. A Checklist of the Birds of Belize. WWF-US. 35p.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Ministry of Natural Resources' Land Information Centre
01/19/98