Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)
About the Purple Heron
The purple heron (Ardea purpurea) is a wide-ranging heron species. It breeds in Africa, central and southern Europe, and southern and eastern Palearctic. The Western Palearctic populations migrate between breeding and wintering habitats whereas the African and tropical-Asian populations are primarily sedentary, except for occasional dispersive movements. It is similar in appearance to the more common grey heron but is slightly smaller, more slender and has darker plumage. It is also a more evasive bird, favouring densely vegetated habitats near water, particularly reed beds. It hunts for a range of prey including fish, rodents, frogs and insects, either stalking them or standing waiting in ambush.
A real field recording of the Purple Heron. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
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Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
3 recordings on this page · licensed Public Domain / CC0 ×3 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Austria, Belgium, China, Croatia, France, Georgia and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 547 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Black-headed HeronArdea melanocephalaprofile
- Cocoi HeronArdea cocoiprofile
- Goliath HeronArdea goliathprofile
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodiasrecording
- Great EgretArdea albarecording
- Great-billed HeronArdea sumatranaprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.