Taxonomy
There are three or four subspecies:
- Ardea purpurea purpurea Linnaeus, 1766. Africa, Europe north to the Netherlands, and southwestern Asia east to Kazakhstan.
- Ardea purpurea bournei (de Naurois, 1966), Bourne's Heron. Cape Verde Islands (included in purpurea by some authors, but treated as a distinct species Ardea bournei by some others).
- Ardea purpurea madagascariensis Oort, 1910. Madagascar.
- Ardea purpurea manilensis Meyen, 1834. Asia from Pakistan east to the Philippines and Indonesia, and north to Primorsky Krai, Russia.
Read more about this topic: Purple Heron