Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Overview: The Great Blue Heron is a large, lean, blue-gray bird. Standing at about four feet tall, this heron has long legs, a long neck, and a daggerlike yellowish bill. Neck may be either outstretched or folded in an S. Head is white with black crown stripe on either side. White foreneck is streaked with black. In flight shows black flight feathers contrasting with powdery-blue plumage. Breeding birds have dense, shaggy plumes on the back and neck. Young birds look similar to adults, but with a black crown.
Field marks: A large wading bird with a long neck, spearlike bill. Separated from other herons and egrets by blue-gray plumage. In flight, neck is often folded in an S; legs trail.
Size: 45 – 47 in. Wingspan 6 ft.
Sounds: Deep harsh croaks: frahnk, frahnk, frahnk. Both males and females “clapper,” or snap their bill tips together as part of breeding and territorial displays, a behavior that may be analogous to a songbird’s territorial song. Great Blue Herons are most vocal on the breeding grounds, where they greet their partner with squawking roh-roh-rohs in a “landing call” when arriving at the nest. A disturbance can trigger a series of clucking go-go-gos, building to a rapid frawnk squawk that can last up to 20 seconds. If directly threatened, birds react with a screaming awk lasting just over 2 seconds (listen to this bird here).
Behavior: Often stands motionless as it scans for prey or wades belly deep with long, deliberate steps. Away from the colony, Great Blue Herons defend feeding territories from other herons with dramatic displays in which the birds approach intruders with their head thrown back, wings outstretched, and bill pointing skyward.
Habitat: Marshes, swamps, shores, tidal flats, moist fields, lakes, rivers; also meadows, farmland, and other open fields. Most breeding colonies are located within two to four miles of feeding areas, often in isolated swamps or on islands, and near lakes and ponds bordered by forests.
Diet: Herons will eat nearly anything within striking distance. Primarily small fish; also shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.
How to attract: If you live in a suitable habitat, putting up nest platforms can attract breeding pairs (find plans and placement information for nesting platforms here).
Fun Facts
Despite their impressive size, Great Blue Herons weigh only 5 to 6 pounds due in part to their hollow bones—a feature all birds share.
Great Blue Herons can hunt day and night because of a high percentage of rod-type photoreceptors in their eyes that improve their night vision.
Great Blue Herons in the northeastern U.S. and southern Canada have benefited from the recovery of beaver populations, which have created a patchwork of swamps and meadows well-suited to foraging and nesting.
Great Blue Herons have specialized feathers on their chest that continually grow and fray. The herons comb this “powder down” with a fringed claw on their middle toes, using the down like a washcloth to remove fish slime and other oils from their feathers as they preen. Applying the powder to their underparts protects their feathers against the slime and oils of swamps.
Thanks to specially shaped neck vertebrae, Great Blue Herons can quickly strike prey at a distance.
Facts provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Information compiled from multiple sources.