The capped heron (Pilherodius pileatus) is a water bird endemic to the neotropics, inhabiting rainforest from the center of Panama to the south of Brazil.

[4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[5] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Ardea pileata in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.

[7][8] The genus name combines the Ancient Greek πιλος pilos "cap" and ερωδιος erōdios meaning "heron".

[17] It is present in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,[18] Suriname, and Venezuela.

[19] It inhabits low lands up to 900 m above sea level,[17] though in Venezuela it is only found below 500 m,[20] and in Ecuador below 400 m.[21] Although there are no migrations registered to this species and it is believed that is sedentary, there may be seasonal movements in Darien, Panama.

It prefers to forage on the shore or in floating vegetation,[23] but has also been observed in trenches of coffee plantations and flooded rice fields.

[23] There are reports of individuals doing aerial hunting,[16] peaking, gleaning, foot paddling, dipping, swimming feeding, and bill-vibrating.

[27] However, these captive individuals failed to have any young survive, possibly due to a deficient diet or abnormal behavior in the adults.

[26] Birds may be seen with other species such as snowy egrets (Egretta thula) and scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber), however other studies have found that they avoid large mixed-species flocks, appearing in fewer than 1% of 145 observed feeding aggregations.