Goliath heron

Weight

2.6 kg – 4.47 kg

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

22.9 years

Diet

Aquatic predator

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

wetland

Egg incubation

28.5 days

Young per litter or clutch

3

Litters or clutches a year

1

Lifestyle

Terrestrial

Migration

Sedentary

Conservation status

Not recorded

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classAves
4. orderPelecaniformes
5. familyArdeidae
6. genusArdea
7. SpeciesArdea goliath Cretzschmar, 1829

Synonyms Ardea goliat, Ardea goliath goliath, Ardea nobilis

Catalogue of Life

LC, Least Concern

Grey heron

Ardea cinerea

Ardeidae

LC, Least Concern

Great egret

Ardea alba

Ardeidae

LC, Least Concern

Western cattle egret

Ardea ibis

Ardeidae

LC, Least Concern

Purple heron

Ardea purpurea

Ardeidae

B

Blue heron

Ardea herodias

ArdeidaeNo free photo yet

M

Medium egret

Ardea intermedia

ArdeidaeNo free photo yet

CompareGoliath heron vs Grey heronGoliath heron vs Great egretGoliath heron vs Western cattle egretGoliath heron vs Purple heron

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
  Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
• AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
  Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{goliath_heron_2026,
  title = {Goliath heron (Ardea goliath)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/goliath-heron},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}