Herons & Egrets in Pennsylvania
Our list for Pennsylvania has 5 herons & egrets recorded regularly there: 1 resident, 2 summer visitors and 2 passage migrants
Most likely in October
GBIF · OctShare of all bird records in Pennsylvania 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 Mar–Nov
Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticoraxSummer visitorUncommon58–65 cmRegularly Apr–Oct
American BitternBotaurus lentiginosusPassage migrantRare58–85 cmRegularly Apr–Nov
Cattle EgretArdea ibisPassage migrantRare46–56 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