Purple Heron

The purple heron is a wide-ranging heron that breeds in Africa, central and southern Europe and the southern and eastern Palearctic. It is similar to the grey heron but slightly smaller, more slender and darker, and more elusive, favouring densely vegetated habitats near water, particularly reed beds. Western Palearctic birds migrate, while African and tropical Asian birds are mostly sedentary (Wikipedia, general species account).

It hunts fish, rodents, frogs and insects by stalking or standing in ambush. It breeds in colonies, building a bulky nest of dead reeds or sticks near the water's edge among reeds or in dense vegetation. About five bluish-green eggs are laid and incubated by both birds; the young hatch about four weeks later and fledge six weeks after that.