Great Blue Heron

The great blue heron is a tall wading bird built for patient stalking, long-necked strike feeding, and flexible use of wetlands, shores, and urban waterways.

• Waits almost motionless before a quick spear-like strike
• Feeds on fish, frogs, crustaceans, and small vertebrates
• Nests in tree colonies or on secluded wetland platforms

Great Blue Herons are mostly diurnal, hunting slowly through daylight and sometimes at dusk.

Habitat: Marsh, lake edge, river shallows, tidal flats, and artificial ponds or canals.

Native range: North and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and northern South America.

Fish, frogs, crayfish, insects, snakes, small mammals, and birds.

Great Blue Herons are mostly diurnal, hunting slowly through daylight and sometimes at dusk.

More than half are thought to die in their first year. Around 15 years is often quoted for adults, and the oldest banded wild bird was at least 24.

Females lay eggs in large stick nests, often in colonies, and both parents feed chicks by regurgitation. Offspring make poise practical because every clean strike becomes fuel for tall hungry young.

Males and females look similar, though males are often slightly larger.

Rarity: Relatively common · 35/100. The species is often common where wetland feeding habitat remains available and disturbance is moderate.

• Stay back from feeding shallows and let the bird resume its own rhythm.
• Do not approach heronries during breeding season.