Purple Heron
Ardea purpurea
Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns
Photo: Mosharraf Hossain · Unsplash · Unsplash License (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1 · nocturnal flight call
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the Purple Heron
Large heron with rusty head and streaky neck; juvenile is extensively rusty brown on upperparts. Favors fresh marshes with tall reeds and other vegetation. Often more retiring than Gray Heron and rarely seen in open situations. Only likely to be confused with larger and bulkier Gray Heron, which is paler and grayer overall, with a stouter bill.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 153 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Angola
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Barbados
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Benin
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Brazil
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- China
- Christmas Island
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- Congo
- Côte d'Ivoire
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Djibouti
- DR Congo
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- High Seas
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Jersey
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macau
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Malta
- Mauritania
- Mayotte
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- Niger
- Nigeria
- North Korea
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestinian Territory
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Saudi Arabia
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Sudan
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Togo
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunisia
- Türkiye
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
