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Purple Heron | Ardea purpurea
Purperreiger | Garza Imperial
The Purple Heron is a slender, dark heron of dense reedbeds and papyrus swamps, far shyer and more secretive than the Grey Heron. With its thin, snake-like neck and rufous pattern it often vanishes completely against the reeds.
Voice
A hoarse kraak or fraank, slightly higher and thinner than that of Grey Heron, mostly when flushed; various grunting sounds at the colony.
Recording: Valentin Toussaert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 84 cm, slender with a long, thin neck and a long, pointed yellowish-brown bill. Head and neck are rufous, with a black crown and a black stripe along the side of the head and neck; the foreneck is streaked. The back is dark slate grey with rufous plumes, and the breast and belly are deep chestnut and black. The legs are yellowish brown with very long toes. Juveniles are plainer sandy brown without black neck stripes. In flight the retracted neck forms an angular bulge beneath the body and the large feet project well beyond the tail.
Confusion species
Goliath Heron Ardea goliath is much larger and heavier, lacks the black crown and neck stripes, and has a heavy dark bill and black legs. Grey Heron Ardea cinerea is grey and white and lacks rufous tones. Young Purple Herons can suggest Eurasian Bittern Botaurus stellaris, but are slimmer with a longer neck and bill.
Habitat
Dense reedbeds, bulrush and papyrus swamps, and vegetated margins of lakes, dams and rivers; seldom on open shores. It stands motionless for long periods or creeps slowly through the vegetation, taking fish, frogs and insects. It breeds in small, loose colonies in the reeds, often low over the water.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Local in suitable marshes throughout the region, most widespread in the north and east: Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northern Botswana (Okavango) and the Caprivi. In South Africa mainly in the east and on the Highveld, with a smaller population in the Western Cape; largely absent from the arid Karoo and inland Namibia. Beyond the region in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and temperate and tropical Eurasia to South-East Asia.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best seen at dawn and dusk, when birds fly over the reeds or emerge at the edge of a reedbed. A boat trip through the Okavango or along reed-fringed dams often gives good views. In flight look for the angular neck bulge.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Vulnerable to the loss and disturbance of reed marshes and to the burning of reeds during the breeding season; locally declined.
Scientific name
Ardea purpurea | Linnaeus, 1766
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Ardea was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Ardea is the Latin word for 'heron'. purpurea is Latin for 'purple-coloured', after the reddish plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from France.