Herons & Egrets in Dorset
Our list for Dorset has 6 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 3 residents, 1 winter visitor, 1 passage migrant and 1 scarce visitor
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Dorset in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 6, most common first
Little EgretEgretta garzettaResidentCommon55–65 cmRecorded all year
Grey HeronArdea cinereaResidentCommon90–98 cmRecorded all year
Great White EgretArdea albaResidentUncommon80–104 cmRecorded all year
Cattle EgretArdea ibisWinter visitorUncommon46–56 cmRegularly Jul–May
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxScarceRare58–65 cm
Eurasian BitternBotaurus stellarisPassage migrantRare69–81 cmRegularly Oct–Mar
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Cattle Egret 46–56 cm
- Little Egret 55–65 cm
- Black-crowned Night-heron 58–65 cm
- Eurasian Bittern 69–81 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