The purple heron which lives in portions of Africa, Europe and Asia has four subspecies. We previously saw them in Sri Lanka which was the subspecies Ardea purpurea manilensis. We recently saw them again in the Tagus River Estuary southeast of Lisbon, Portugal, but the nominate subspecies, A. p. purpurea. I'm not finding a source that explains the differences between subspecies. This nominate subspecies is found in Africa, Europe north to the Netherlands, and southwestern Asia east to Kazakhstan.
The green plants are a great background for highlighting the purplish color of the heron.
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