鹭 (lù): heron

鹭 (lù) is a Chinese character meaning “heron.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 路 (phonetic) and 鸟 (semantic). It ranks #4335 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 鹭 bird. Its radical form 鸟 (bird) appears in many related characters such as 鸟 (niǎo, bird), 鸡 (jī, chicken), 鸭 (yā, duck).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. heron

Etymology & Origin

鹭

pictophoneticbird

Decomposition: ⿱路鸟 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Practice writing 鹭 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
白鹭nounbái lù(bird species of China) little egret (Egretta garzetta)
苍鹭nouncāng lù(bird species of China) grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
鹭鸶lù sīegret
白鹭湾湿地公园bái lù wān shī dì gōng yuánBailuwan Wetland Park, Chengdu
大白鹭dà bái lù(bird species of China) great egret (Ardea alba)
中白鹭zhōng bái lù(bird species of China) medium egret (Ardea intermedia)
黄嘴白鹭huáng zuǐ bái lù(bird species of China) Chinese egret (Egretta eulophotes)
白脸鹭bái liǎn lù(bird species of China) white-faced heron (Egretta novaehollandiae)
黑脸琵鹭hēi liǎn pí lù(bird species of China) black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor)
黑冠麻鹭hēi guān má lù(bird species of China) Malayan night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)
牛背鹭niú bèi lù(bird species of China) eastern cattle egret (Bubulcus coromandus)
白腹鹭bái fù lù(bird species of China) white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis)
白琵鹭bái pí lù(bird species of China) Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia)
夜鹭nounyè lù(bird species of China) black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
暗鹭àn lùblack-crowned night heron (Tw)
25
Total compounds
4
As first character
92
As last character
4
As middle character

鹭 appears in 25 compound words: 4 as the first character, 92 as the last, and 4 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

黑冠麻鹭hēi guān má lù

(bird species of China) Malayan night heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

在家人常伴光影场景,湖中一大一小、相互依偎的两只夜鹭造型灯光装置令人感到松弛悠闲。

zài jiā rén cháng bàn guāng yǐng chǎng jǐng , hú zhōng yī dà yī xiǎo , xiāng hù yī 偎 de liǎng zhī yè lù zào xíng dēng guāng zhuāng zhì lìng rén gǎn dào sōng chí yōu xián .

In a scene where family members are often surrounded by light and shadow, the light installation featuring two night herons—one large and one small, nestled together on the lake—evokes a sense of relaxation and leisure.

少数派Sep 2026

注:这是之前我用过的某台手机拍下的站在电线上的白鹭,这种长焦就有点太艺术了。

zhù : zhè shì zhī qián wǒ yòng guò de mǒu tái shǒu jī pāi xià de zhàn zài diàn xiàn shàng de bái lù , zhè zhǒng cháng jiāo jiù yǒu diǎn tài yì shù le .

Note: This is a photo I took with an old phone of a white egret perched on a power line; this kind of telephoto shot is a bit too artistic.

少数派Aug 2026

有请今天的特别嘉宾,黑脸琵鹭。

yǒu qǐng jīn tiān de tè bié jiā bīn , hēi liǎn 琵 lù .

Please welcome today’s special guest, the Black-faced Spoonbill.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

轮渡的客船犁开鹭江江面,驶向鼓浪屿。

lún dù de kè chuán 犁 kāi lù jiāng jiāng miàn , shǐ xiàng gǔ làng yǔ .

The ferry plowed through the waters of the Lu River, heading toward Gulangyu.

少数派Jun 2026

之前我只在老家的稻田远观过白鹭,这是我第一次这么近距离的抬头就能看到一大片白鹭群。

zhī qián wǒ zhī zài lǎo jiā de dào tián yuǎn guān guò bái lù , zhè shì wǒ dì yī cì zhè me jìn jù lí de tái tóu jiù néng kàn dào yī dà piàn bái lù qún .

Before this, I’d only ever seen egrets from a distance in the rice paddies back home; this was the first time I’d been able to look up and see such a large flock of egrets right in front of me.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 鸟 (bird) component

鸟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bird radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced lù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鹭 (lù) mean in Chinese?
鹭 (lù) primarily means "heron." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4335 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鹭 have?
鹭 is written with 18 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 鹭?
The radical associated with 鹭 is 鸟 (bird). This radical appears in many characters related to bird.
What are the components of 鹭?
鹭 is composed of: 路 (phonetic), 鸟 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱路鸟 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鹭?
Common words with 鹭 include: 白鹭 (bái lù, "(bird species of China) little egret (Egretta garzetta)"); 苍鹭 (cāng lù, "(bird species of China) grey heron (Ardea cinerea)"); 鹭鸶 (lù sī, "egret"); 白鹭湾湿地公园 (bái lù wān shī dì gōng yuán, "Bailuwan Wetland Park, Chengdu"); 大白鹭 (dà bái lù, "(bird species of China) great egret (Ardea alba)"). There are over 25 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鹭 (lù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lù: 露 (dew, reveal), 璐 (beautiful jade), 潞 (name of a river). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鹭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 鹭 and the traditional form is 鷺.

Practice writing 鹭 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.