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Purple Heron - where to find in south Andalucia? (1 Viewer)

Trik

www.trikimages.co.uk Wildlife photography
We are hoping to return to Andalucia in early Spring next year and Purple Heron is high on our wish list. Can anyone suggest the most likely place/s to find them in south Andalucia and the best months, please?

Many thanks.
 
Can't help with individual sites, but they're quite common in Iberia generally at larger, well-vegetated wetlands. Behaviour often rather Bittern-like, skulking at the edges of reedbeds.
 
Xenospiza : the map on observation.org/ wouldn't load properly on my system for some reason, but it looks as though we would have to go west from the Malaga area to have the best chance of seeing them. They are gorgeous birds, and, if we can find them, they would complete our European herons list.

Thanks to you and Nutcracker for the info.
 
Send me a message nearer your travel time. I live near the old lagoon of La Janda so we might be able to meet and I can give you some guidance as to where to find one, with a lot of luck!
 
We do hire a guide for our trips, but our main centre of activities is usually north of Malaga and into Sierra de Nevada, although we have widened that to La Janda on a couple of occasions. Although our guide may know of some places to look for Purple Heron in La Janda, you can't beat local knowledge, so thank you for your kind offer, Gerald!

Incidentally, when we go to La Janda, we usually stay at the El Paso below Vejer de la Frontera, but have never explored the village/town, as we're more interested in wildlife.
 
Have you managed to look again at E-bird as per my suggestion on your other thread? I think you'll find still better sites than La Janda (where it's predominantly a passage migrant) for the species. As suggested above Brazo del Este is one example of a better place to try. If you plan to come over as far as la Janda more regularly then do, please, PM me for my free 250pp birding site guide to Cadiz province.
 
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I have looked at E-bird again and there are so many pink/purple rectangles, I find it rather confusing still. What area does a rectangle indicate, do you know - looks maybe 5km or more wide...? Certainly Motril and west of the Sierra de Nevada are closer to our normal centre of operations. However, if I am reading the map aright, there looks to be a higher concentration of birds towards Sevilla (Brazo de Este?) and in Donana National Park (dark purple markers). We've not been as far north as Sevilla or across the river into the National Park - yet!

As I have mentioned, our plans for next year are still fluid, as it depends on the availability of our guide, but we are keeping our fingers crossed.
 
I have looked at E-bird again and there are so many pink/purple rectangles, I find it rather confusing still. What area does a rectangle indicate, do you know - looks maybe 5km or more wide...?
If you zoom in on the map, the pink (few records) and purple (many records) will resolve into individual pins, pinned to exact locations.
 
Thanks, Nutcracker. I thought that maybe I needed to register with them, but when I (eventually) zoomed in enough, I found the pins. Since then, I've been whizzing around Andalucia checking out my wish list - which is extensive! |=)|
 
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