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.

Purple herons are colonial breeders and build a bulky nest out of dead reeds or sticks close to the water' edge among reeds or in dense vegetation. About five bluish-green eggs are laid and are incubated by both birds. The young hatch about four weeks later and fledge six weeks after that. The International Union for Conservation of Nature notes that the global population trend is downwards, largely because of the drainage of wetlands, but assesses the purple heron's conservation status as being of "least concern".

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the purple heron in his six volume Ornithologie based on a specimen in the collection of Madame de Bandeville, also known as Marie Anne Catherine Bigot de Graveron (1709-1787). He used the French name Le héron pourpré hupé and the Latin Ardea cristata purpurascens. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. Brisson did not specify where the specimen had been collected but Linnaeus gave the locality as "in Oriente". This was restricted to France by Erwin Stresemann in 1920. The scientific name comes from Latin ardea "heron", and purpureus, "coloured purple".

Four subspecies are recognised:

Description

thumb|3D scan of the skeleton

The purple heron is a large bird, in length with a standing height from and a wingspan.

thumb|A purple heron at [[Powai Lake, Maharashtra, India]]

The call is a harsh "frarnk", but is quieter and more high-pitched than that of the grey heron. It is generally a less noisy bird, though similar guttural sounds are heard emanating from the heronry. It is also less robust, and appears somewhat hollow-chested. Its head and neck are more slender and snake-like than the grey heron and its toes much longer. Unlike that bird, it often adopts a posture with its neck extending obliquely, and even nestlings tend to use this stance. and a small population of purple herons on the Cape Verde Islands is regarded as a separate race by some authorities. The eastern population is largely resident, though some birds from the northern part of the range fly southwards to Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. The African birds are resident.

References

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  • Ageing and sexing (PDF) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze
  • Purple Heron – The Atlas of Southern African Birds