White-necked heron
Ardea pacifica Latham, 1801
The white-necked heron (Ardea pacifica) is a species in the family Ardeidae, order Pelecaniformes. Recorded adults weigh about 881 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
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Quick facts about the white-necked heron
- Weight
- 881 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Wingspan
- 1.47 m – 1.6 msrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Omnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.5src for Young per litter or clutch
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
How big is the white-necked heron?
Photos of the white-necked heron
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the white-necked heron live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The white-necked heron is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the white-necked heron?
The white-necked heron or Pacific heron (Ardea pacifica) is a species of heron that is found on most of the Australian continent wherever freshwater habitats exist. It is also found in parts of Indonesia and New Guinea, but is uncommon in Tasmania. The populations of this species in Australia are known to be nomadic like most water birds in Australia, moving from one water source to another, often entering habitats they have not previously occupied, taking advantage of flooding and heavy rain where the surplus of food allows them to breed and raise their young. Irruptive movements may occur when environmental conditions are right in places where the species has been rare or absent.
From the Wikipedia article “White-necked heron” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=White-necked_heron&oldid=1379920094), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the white-necked heron endangered?
The white-necked heron is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the white-necked heron classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPelecaniformes
- familyArdeidae
- genusArdea
- SpeciesArdea pacifica Latham, 1801
Synonyms Notophoyx pacifica alexandrae
Other names and names in other languages (42)
- Australian white-necked heronEnglish
- Pacific heronEnglish
- Pacific heronEnglish
- بلشون أبيض العنقArabic
- لشون المحيط الهادئArabic
- Тихоокеанска чаплаBulgarian
- Kerc'heiz gouzoug gwennBreton
- bernat collblancCatalan
- volavka bělokrkáCzech
- crëyr y Môr TawelWelsh
- Hvidhalset HejreDanish
- WeißhalsreiherGerman
- Pacifika ardeoEsperanto
- blankakola ardeoEsperanto
- Garza cuelliblancaSpanish
- Garza de Cuello BlancoSpanish
- valgepea-haigurEstonian
- حواصیل گردنسفیدPersian
- valkopäähaikaraFinnish
- Héron à tête blancheFrench
- אנפה לבנת-צווארHebrew
- bjeloglava čapljaCroatian
- fehérnyakú gémHungarian
- Cangak pasifikIndonesian
- Airone del PacificoItalian
- Airone dal collo biancoItalian
- シロガシラサギJapanese
- juurrgankgs
- baltakaklis garnysLithuanian
- Vandenyninis garnysLithuanian
- WithalsreigerDutch
- hvithodehegreNorwegian
- czapla białoszyjaPolish
- چٹی تؤنوالا بگلاWestern Panjabi
- garça-de-pescoço-brancoPortuguese
- Белошейная цапляRussian
- volavka bielokrkáSlovak
- vithalsad hägerSwedish
- Ak Boyunlu BalıkçılTurkish
- чапля білошияUkrainian
- 白頸鷺Chinese
- 白颈鹭Chinese
Relatives of the white-necked heron
Other species in the same genus Ardea.
Grey heron
Ardea cinerea
Great egret
Ardea alba
Western cattle egret
Ardea ibis
Purple heron
Ardea purpurea
Goliath heron
Ardea goliath
Great blue heron
Ardea herodias
CompareWhite-necked heron vs Grey heronWhite-necked heron vs Great egretWhite-necked heron vs Western cattle egretWhite-necked heron vs Purple heron
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the white-necked heron?
An adult white-necked heron weighs 881 g and has a wingspan of 1.47 m – 1.6 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the white-necked heron live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the white-necked heron for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the white-necked heron endangered?
The white-necked heron is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
What kind of animal is the white-necked heron?
The white-necked heron (Ardea pacifica) belongs to the family Ardeidae in the order Pelecaniformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- 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 - 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). - 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).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). White-necked heron (Ardea pacifica). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-necked-heron
“White-necked heron (Ardea pacifica).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-necked-heron.
@misc{white_necked_heron_2026,
title = {White-necked heron (Ardea pacifica)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-necked-heron},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}