Herons & Egrets in Illinois
Our list for Illinois has 5 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 1 resident and 4 summer visitors
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Illinois 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 albaSummer visitorCommon80–104 cmRegularly Apr–Nov
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxSummer visitorUncommon58–65 cmRegularly Mar–Jan
American BitternBotaurus lentiginosusSummer visitorRare58–85 cmRegularly Apr–Nov
Cattle EgretArdea ibisSummer visitorRare46–56 cmRegularly Apr–Nov
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