Herons & Egrets in Japan
Our list for Japan has 6 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 5 residents and 1 summer visitor
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Japan in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 6, most common first
Grey HeronArdea cinereaResidentCommon90–98 cmRecorded all year
Great White EgretArdea albaResidentCommon80–104 cmRecorded all year
Little EgretEgretta garzettaResidentCommon55–65 cmRecorded all year
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxResidentCommon58–65 cmRecorded all year
Purple HeronArdea purpureaSummer visitorRare78–90 cmRegularly Nov–Sep
Eurasian BitternBotaurus stellarisResidentRare69–81 cmRegularly Nov–Jul
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Little Egret 55–65 cm
- Black-crowned Night-heron 58–65 cm
- Eurasian Bittern 69–81 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