The purple heron (Ardea purpurea) depends strictly on high-quality wetlands, a habitat type that has been dramatically declining worldwide, but at a steeper rate in Europe. Purple herons perform long-distance trans-Saharan migrations with astonishing high performances in terms of migration speed and duration. Despite the fact that its large size (~1kg) and wing-ratio may suggest it behaves as a soaring migratory bird, the species mostly performs highly energetically demanding flapping flight.
In collaboration with a series of institutions (Vogelwarte.ch, University of Pavia, University of Valencia), donors (SILEA spa), and with the support of the Nature reserves hosting the breeding colonies, MOVECOLAB has deployed GPS/GSM devices on adults from different colonies, spreading these along a longitudinal gradient with the main aim of studying migration routes and phenology, flight performance, and interactions with weather variables. We are also looking towards describing foraging ecology parameters and habitat preferences during the breeding season, and aim to collect data that would be compared with other study systems. Check our purple heron project in Movebank.org, name: ‘Purpurea, Southern Europe’.