Herons & Egrets in District of Columbia
Our list for District of Columbia has 5 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 3 residents and 2 passage migrants
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in District of Columbia in October, 2019–2024. Each month links to that month’s page.
All 5, most common first
Great Blue HeronArdea herodiasResidentCommon91–137 cmRecorded all year
Great White EgretArdea albaPassage migrantCommon80–104 cmRegularly Jun–Nov
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxResidentUncommon58–65 cmRecorded all year
American BitternBotaurus lentiginosusPassage migrantUncommon58–85 cmRegularly Oct–Apr
Cattle EgretArdea ibisResidentRare46–56 cmRegularly Jul
Smallest to largest
Length, cm- Cattle Egret 46–56 cm
- Black-crowned Night-heron 58–65 cm
- American Bittern 58–85 cm
- Great White Egret 80–104 cm
- Great Blue Heron 91–137 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