🐾 What Animal Lives Where

Where does the Purple Heron live?

Ardea purpurea has 853,025 records in 160 countries and territories, from 1830 to 2026. Most records come from India.

Purple Heron
Purple Heron — Photo: José Prego from Moura, Portugal · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
AnimaliaChordataAvesPelecaniformesArdeidaeArdea

When it is recorded

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak month: April. 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

18302026

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
India 289,660
Spain 74,175
Netherlands 72,179
France 69,075
South Africa 59,705
Portugal 20,521
Thailand 19,602
Israel 19,176
Sri Lanka 18,431
Taiwan 18,060
Malaysia 15,530
Türkiye 10,447
Singapore 10,217
Indonesia 7,893
Philippines 7,197
Belgium 6,921
United Arab Emirates 6,532
Greece 6,423
Italy 6,160
Hungary 6,051
Germany 5,310
Uganda 5,151
Kenya 4,426
China 4,353
Romania 4,250
Hong Kong 3,969
Cambodia 3,961
Ukraine 3,903
Egypt 3,568
Bulgaria 3,494
Russia 3,083
Botswana 2,825
Madagascar 2,678
Gambia 2,516
Serbia 2,516
Croatia 2,449
Cyprus 2,405
Senegal 2,195
Oman 2,180
Austria 2,120

Showing the top 40 of 160 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.