Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is the largest heron in North America. It stands three to four feet tall and has a wing span of seven feet. The bills are a yellowish color and the legs are green. Great blue herons have gray upper bodies, and their necks are streaked with white, black and rust-brown. They have grey feathers on the back of their necks with chestnut colored feathers on their thighs. The males have a puffy plume of feathers behind their heads and also tend to be slightly larger than females. In flight, the head is held close to and aligned with the body by a downward bend in the long neck. The long legs trail behind. This bird flies with strong deliberate wing beats.

Habitat

Great blue herons always live near sources of water, including rivers, lake edges, marshes, saltwater seacoasts, and swamps. They usually nest in trees or bushes that stand near water, breeding at elevations of up to 1,500 m.

Behavior

The great blue heron migrates in the fall, although some stay in the northern part of their range. The great blue heron usually tucks its head into an S shape when its resting and flying.

Diet

The great blue heron fishes for food during the day and at night. It stands in shallow water or at waters edge and waits for prey like frogs and fish to pass by and then it grabs them with its long bill. It also eats salamanders, lizards, snakes, turtles, shrimps, crabs, crayfish, dragonflies, grasshoppers, aquatic insects and occasionally birds and small mammals like mice.

Life Cycle

The female great blue heron lays two to seven pale blue eggs on a bulky nest made of sticks and twigs and lined with a soft material. The nest is usually in a tall tree, but it may be built in the reeds or a cliff edge. They usually breed in colonies close to lakes or wetlands, often with other species of herons. These groups are called ’heronry’ (more accurately than ’rookery’). The eggs hatch in about a month and the chicks will fledge when they are about two months old. Great blue herons nest in colonies. They usually nest in the same spot from year-to-year. They may even use the same nest. Both parents feed the young by regurgitating food.