in

Love ItLove It

The Purple Heron

The purple heron is characterized by its long beak, narrow neck, reddish chestnut colored  head. These birds are often mistaken for the grey heron which are larger and paler in color.

The males are a deeper grey with a purple gloss.  The elongated neck of the birds and the dark pattern running across the throat gives it a snake like appearance. The purple color on these birds is much more clearer when they catch the light in flight. These birds have small wings and even smaller tail.

The purple herons prefer water bodies with dense reeds where they can breed. They feed on small fish, insects mainly invertebrates, mollusks , crustaceans.  They usually fish in water that is not too deep and stand for hours looking into the water. The Asian herons do not migrate like their European cousins

These bird lays eggs in clutch of 2-8 eggs. Sibling rivalry is fierce and many of the young birds do not survive into adulthood. It has been fun to learn about the purple heron for me. I hope it was interesting information for you as well.

  • Question of

    Have you seen purple herons?

    • Yes
  • Question of

    Have you seen purple herons?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    Did you do any bird watching over the weekend?

    • Yes
    • No

Report

What do you think?

13 Points

Written by Dawn

16 Comments

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply