The Purple Heron has a great variance in size ranging from 78-90 cm. This is a bird from the region of sub-Sahara Middle -east, the Indian sub-continent, China and down to the Philippines and Sundas. This is a common bird in Malaysia. This is a bird for the freshwater wetlands though can also be seen in mangrove forest and coastal mudflats.

It nest in colony in heronry with other Heron & Egrets. Easy to find them as a solitary n bird in padi fields.

The Black-capped Night Heron is about 60 cm long. This bird origin was traced back to many countries in tropical east Africa and Asia. Now the bird is widespread and breeding well in Malaysia. This is a bird of the marshes and swamps where they gather in huge numbers in colonies.

Both the male and female looks alike though the male may be marginally larger than the female. With a more stocky body combined with shorter legs, neck and bills, they look quite different from the "Day" herons.

Very seldom seen alone and foraging as they feed mainly in the night as their name implies. They do hunt in the day on the estuary and beside the Little Heron. Both bird almost of similar size and behavioral pattern when hunting.

When the bird is breeding, the plumage turns from dull dark color to bluish-green. The feet and eyes turns red.

This is a 50 cm bird from the from India and the Nicobar Islands. Then another area in South China and the Philippines.

A bird that hardly seen as it feeds only at night. and its appearance limited to wet swampy places with fresh water streams running nearby. I had this chance meeting with the bird in Rimba where all the pictures were taken.

There are 3 species of Pond herons that could be sighted in Malaysia, they all are of identical size - 45 cm.

All the 3 birds having almost identical features albeit some very minor differences. Very difficult to tell them apart in their normal non-breeding plumages. When they take flight the underside of the wings and tail is white.

I made no attempt here to list out those minute differences.

Pond herons are most likely seen in open areas with pools of waters, e.g. sewage ponds, fish ponds and padi fields. They could also be among the low trees by the river and in mudflats.

The only way to ID them is when they are in breeding plumage as the pictures below would show.

The herons, particularly the Pond heron with their breeding plumage is interesting. There is only a small window of time each year, to do all the following up for ID and picture taking.

A significant large portion of the topic on Heron is taken up by the Night Herons, which are birds that are so hard to follow. Just simply "not there" for us to watch or doing any follow up visit to learn more about them.

Against that background of obstacles, when mention the name Heron, it is no surprise that we think of the Purple, Grey and Little Herons and in this order we ponder over the facts that we know about this group of birds.