🐾 What Animal Lives Where

Where does the Black-headed Heron live?

Ardea melanocephala has 332,551 records in 53 countries and territories, from 1845 to 2026. Most records come from South Africa.

Black-headed Heron
Black-headed Heron — Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim Facebook The making of this document was supported by Wikimedia CH. (Submit your project!) For all the files concerned, please see the category Supported by Wikimedia CH. العربية ∙ বাংলা ∙ čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ Esperanto ∙ español ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ हिन्दी ∙ magyar ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ Nederlands ∙ português do Brasil ∙ rumantsch ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ தமிழ் ∙ українська ∙ 中文 ∙ +/− · GFDL 1.2 · Wikimedia Commons
AnimaliaChordataAvesPelecaniformesArdeidaeArdea

When it is recorded

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak month: January. Records cluster in the months an animal is present and being looked for, so a summer peak can reflect observer effort as much as the animal.

Records over time

18452026

Recording effort has risen steeply almost everywhere since the 1990s, so a rising line usually shows more observers rather than more animals.

Where it is recorded

PlaceRecordsShare
South Africa 241,998
Kenya 28,979
Tanzania 14,422
Uganda 12,402
Zimbabwe 5,635
Gambia 4,556
Zambia 3,296
Rwanda 3,024
Nigeria 2,526
Namibia 2,518
Mozambique 2,010
Eswatini 1,410
Ethiopia 1,320
Botswana 1,239
Malawi 1,225
Senegal 1,004
Ghana 934
DR Congo 740
Lesotho 723
Chad 414
Angola 346
Cameroon 300
Benin 249
Guinea-Bissau 246
Burkina Faso 115
South Sudan 109
Sudan 90
Guinea 84
Central African Republic 83
Somalia 65
Congo 63
Niger 61
Burundi 53
Mauritania 43
Gabon 32
Mali 30
Equatorial Guinea 29
Sierra Leone 26
Togo 25
Eritrea 23

Showing the top 40 of 53 places.

Related animals

Others in the family Ardeidae.

Great Blue
Great Blue
14,190,794 records
Great Egret
Great Egret
12,974,678 records
Gray
Gray
7,828,763 records
Snowy Egret
Snowy Egret
4,756,891 records
Little Egret
Little Egret
3,850,714 records
Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret
3,698,158 records
Green
Green
3,378,362 records
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
3,144,357 records
Status from the records: resident
Recorded across many years and months — an established presence. This is inferred from how many years and months the animal appears in, not from a range map — treat it as evidence, not a formal assessment.