''Nyctanassa'' is a genus of
night herons from the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
, especially (but not exclusively) warmer coastal regions. They were formerly included in the genus ''
Nycticorax
''Nycticorax'' is a genus of night herons. The name ''Nycticorax'' means "night raven" and derives from the Ancient Greek νύκτος, ''nuktos'' "night" and κοραξ, ''korax'', "raven". It refers to the largely nocturnal feeding habits ...
'', but today all major authorities recognize them as different.
The name comes from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
words for "night" and "lady" or "queen", referring to the yellow-crowned night heron's nocturnal activity and its beauty.
Species
References
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*Peterson, Alan P. (Editor). 1999
Zoological Nomenclature Resource (Zoonomen) Accessed 2007-7-29.
*Remsen, J. V., Jr., C. D. Cadena, A. Jaramillo, M. Nores, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, T. S. Schulenberg, F. G. Stiles, D. F. Stotz, and K. J. Zimmer.
ersion 2007-07-29.A classification of the bird species of South America'. American Ornithologists' Union. Accessed 2007-04-10.
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Bird genera
{{Pelecaniformes-stub