This week we will be looking at the Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) for which a new longevity record has been recorded. The Grey Heron has a large population and is found in temperate Europe, Asia and parts of Africa, in shallow waters near trees; as it is an arboreal nester. The estimated population size is between 790 000 and 3700 000 individuals (ref).
A re-sighting of a ringed Grey Heron earlier this year has seen the longevity record being broken by an individual spotted at Olifantsbos on the 2nd of January. The combination of the metal ring on the left leg and the red colour ring on the right leg confirms that this bird was ringed in 2003 at Rondevlei Nature Reserve as a juvenile. This makes the individual 13 years as of October 2015 and the oldest ringed Grey Heron in South Africa that SAFRING has on record. Our previous longevity record for this species was 11 years and 9 months. If you know of an older record please contact us at SAFRING with the details.
This record breaking individual is still alive and could possibly break its own record by the end of the year; so please report any sighting of these and other colour ringed (here) and ringed birds (here) that you come across to us. This is a great example of how ringing birds and colour ringing projects are able to gather new information on various aspects of species ecology; in this case their longevity!
Thank you to Simon Fogarty for reporting this Grey Heron which was ringed by Dalton Gibbs. The image used in this article comes from Michael Brooks and was linked from BirdPix
Taxonomy | Maximum Longevity |
Order: Pelecaniformes Family:Ardeidae Genus: Ardea |
11.75 years (SAFRING) |
Species | Ring Number |
Ardea cinerea | Not available |
Common name | Sample size |
Grey Heron | Ringed: 504 Retrapped: 11 Recovered: 20 Total: 535 |