Herons & Egrets in West Sussex
Our list for West Sussex has 5 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 3 residents, 1 winter visitor and 1 scarce visitor
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in West Sussex in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 5, most common first
Grey HeronArdea cinereaResidentCommon90–98 cmRecorded all year
Little EgretEgretta garzettaResidentCommon55–65 cmRecorded all year
Cattle EgretArdea ibisResidentUncommon46–56 cmRecorded all year
Great White EgretArdea albaWinter visitorUncommon80–104 cmRegularly Jul–May
Purple HeronArdea purpureaScarceRare78–90 cm
Smallest to largest
Length, 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