Herons & Egrets in Ireland
Our list for Ireland has 6 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 2 residents, 2 winter visitors, 1 passage migrant and 1 scarce visitor
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Ireland in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 6, most common first
Grey HeronArdea cinereaResidentCommon90–98 cmRecorded all year
Little EgretEgretta garzettaResidentCommon55–65 cmRecorded all year
Great White EgretArdea albaWinter visitorRare80–104 cmRecorded all year
Cattle EgretArdea ibisWinter visitorRare46–56 cmRegularly Oct–May
Purple HeronArdea purpureaPassage migrantRare78–90 cmRegularly Jun
Squacco HeronArdeola ralloidesScarceRare40–49 cmRegularly May
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Squacco Heron 40–49 cm
- Cattle Egret 46–56 cm
- Little Egret 55–65 cm
- Purple Heron 78–90 cm
- Great White Egret 80–104 cm
- Grey Heron 90–98 cm
Body length, bill to tail. Rare birds in grey.
Data: EOD – eBird Observation Dataset (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), accessed via GBIF.org, CC BY 4.0. Records from 2019–2024, aggregated and filtered by Birdfact. How these lists are made