Herons of the World
Every heron species, mapped to each place it occurs. Each dot is a species in one country, colored by IUCN Red List status and sized by how many species share that location.
GBIF occurrence records · 2006–2025
IUCN STATUS KEY
IUCN = International Union for Conservation of Nature; its Red List rates each species' extinction risk. Dot size = number of species sharing that location.
CONSERVATION WATCH
Pick a status to filter the map and this list; click a species to locate it on the map.
Source: IUCN Red List 2025-2 · click a species to locate it on the map
Species Spotlight
Pick any of the 68 herons. Every figure is a real dataset value; “—” means genuinely unrecorded.
Occurrence density
Species Gallery: Final Ardeidae Collection
Explore the curated collection of Ardeidae from around the globe, captured with cinematic precision. Immerse yourself in the spectral beauty of these master hunters.
Portraits are AI-generated and are illustrative only. They may not be accurate and do not reflect a species' real size or scale. For verified photographs and reference imagery, see the Macaulay Library (Cornell Lab of Ornithology).
Citations & Data Sources
Every figure and image in the atlas traces to a cited source below; blanks mean a value is genuinely unrecorded, never invented.
Metadata Density
Completeness across 68 species over 8 tracked fields. Blanks are genuine gaps, not to-dos.
Source Mix
AI Imagery & Attribution
Species portraits are generated by Stitch (AI assistant by Google), 2026, for the Heron Atlas project.
While the scientific data (names, status, traits, occurrences) comes from established authorities, the portraits are original AI creations in the "Lumina Atlas" aesthetic, not photographs.
Derived & Method Notes
- Residence spots, density, and seasonality are computed from GBIF occurrence records (2006–2025).
- Migration arcs are a GBIF occurrence approximation, breeding vs non-breeding centroids, not eBird Status & Trends telemetry.
- Conservation status drives every map dot's color; blanks are left blank, never inferred.
- Portraits are AI-generated (Stitch); where a portrait is absent, a clean placeholder is shown rather than a substitute photo.
- Maps are rendered with Leaflet, an open-source JavaScript library (BSD-2). It is the mapping tool, not a data source; the base geometry is Natural Earth (cited above) and no external map tiles are loaded.
Data Sources
Tap a card to open the source
IOC World Bird List v15.2
The taxonomic backbone: supplies every scientific name (the join key across all files), the English common name, and the genus. Nothing links together without it.
Cite asGill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2026. IOC World Bird List (v15.2).
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Conservation status (LC→CR) that drives every map dot's color, plus population trend, population estimate, and the population narrative on each species page.
Cite asIUCN. 2026. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2025-2. https://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed on 06 July 2026.
GBIF occurrence download
The raw occurrence records behind the whole map: residence spots, the density grid, seasonality, the year×month distribution cube, each species' range centroid, and the GBIF-approximated migration arcs.
Cite asGBIF.org (4 July 2026) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.cn3qad
AVONET
Morphological and ecological traits: body mass, habitat and habitat density, dietary/trophic niche, trophic level, primary lifestyle, and migration classification.
Cite asTobias, Joseph (2021). AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds (Tobias et al 2022 Ecology Letters doi: 10.1111/ele.13898). figshare. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
EltonTraits 1.0
Foraging ecology: the 5-category diet breakdown, proportional diet composition, and foraging stratum (where in the habitat each species feeds).
Cite asWilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. and Jetz, W. (2014), EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology, 95: 2027-2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1
Wikidata
Secondary body measurements: length and wingspan in centimeters. (Its mass values were reviewed and rejected as unreliable, so they are not used.)
Cite asWikidata contributors (2026). Wikidata, the free knowledge base. https://www.wikidata.org (accessed 4 July 2026).
Natural Earth
The country outlines drawn on the Atlas and Spotlight maps: public-domain vector borders from Natural Earth, inlined as TopoJSON via the world-atlas 110m build. No external map tiles are loaded.
Cite asMade with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. (Country polygons inlined as TopoJSON via the world-atlas 110m build.)
Species portraits (AI-generated)
AI-generated species portraits for the Species Gallery and the Species Guide hero images, synthesised in the 'Lumina Atlas' aesthetic; not photographs.
Cite asVisual asset generated by Stitch (AI assistant by Google), 2026, for the Heron Atlas project.
License terms, explained
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0 / 3.0): free to use, share, and adapt, including commercially, as long as you credit the source.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): the same, but for non-commercial use only.
Public domain (CC0 1.0): no rights reserved; no attribution required (we credit anyway).
IUCN Red List terms: free for research and non-commercial use with credit; commercial use needs permission.
Free, with attribution / citation: free to use provided you credit or cite the source.
Mixed: a bundle of datasets under several of the licenses above; cite it by its DOI (permanent Digital Object Identifier).
AI, no standard license: AI-generated imagery; no established license, so the generator is credited.