Herons & Egrets in Sierra Leone
Our list for Sierra Leone has 7 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 3 winter visitors, 3 passage migrants and 1 scarce visitor
All 7, most common first
Cattle EgretArdea ibisWinter visitorCommon46–56 cmRegularly Nov–Apr
Great White EgretArdea albaWinter visitorCommon80–104 cmRegularly Dec–Apr
Grey HeronArdea cinereaPassage migrantCommon90–98 cmRegularly Dec–Feb
Little EgretEgretta garzettaWinter visitorCommon55–65 cmRegularly Dec–Feb
Squacco HeronArdeola ralloidesPassage migrantCommon40–49 cmRegularly Jan
Purple HeronArdea purpureaPassage migrantUncommon78–90 cmRegularly Jan
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxScarceUncommon58–65 cmRegularly Jan
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Squacco Heron 40–49 cm
- Cattle Egret 46–56 cm
- Little Egret 55–65 cm
- Black-crowned Night-heron 58–65 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