Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)

Scientific name: Ardea purpurea (Linnaeus, 1766)
Common name: Purple Heron
French name: Héron pourpré
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Size: Body size: 90 cm; Weight: 600 to 1400 g; Wingspan: 120 to 150 cm.
Habitat: Ponds, lakes and marshes with large reed-beds during the breeding season, open humid places outside this period.
Food: Fishes, crustaceans, molluscs, water insects, reptiles, frogs, small rodents and small birds. Fishing or hunting are done by standing in wait. It stabs the preys with its beak.
Nesting: The Purple Heron generally nests in small colonies among reed-beds but also sometimes on trees. Females lay 2 to 5 eggs in large nests built with reeds or sticks.
Migration: European birds winter in Africa, south of the Sahara.
Geographic area: Western Europe, southern Europe, central Europe, southern Asia, eastern part of temperate Asia, Africa south of the Tropic of Cancer.

The Purple Heron is a bird showing a lengthy body shape.
The plumage is a purple brown colour with grey wings, a black belly and reddish brown to reddish purple chest and flanks.
The back of the neck is reddish brown. There is a thin black line on each side. The front of the neck is white with black streaks. There are long feathers on the chest when in nuptial plumage.
The cap and the crest's feathers are black.
The long and sharp bill is yellow. The legs are orange yellow.

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) - Saône-et-Loire, France - September 17th 2012

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I am use to often observing Purple Herons on this stagnant river branch of the Basse Vallée du Doubs, but I have not yet been able to get close enough to shoot beautiful pictures.
Even my long period of sitting in wait have been unsuccessful.
So I am starting this page with a picture shot in the far, waiting for better days.

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) - Saône-et-Loire, France - May 29th 2014

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I have seen this Purple Heron on the bank of a tiny ditch crossing a damp meadow.

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) - Danube delta, Romania - August 2nd 2019

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Here you can clearly see the slender silhouette and the very long neck of the Purple Heron.

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André Bon November 2024