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| Wetlands & Waterfowl's Guide to North American Waterfowl: | |||
| Click to load: American Bittern American Widgeon Black- Crowned Night Heron Black Duck Blue-Winged Teal Canada Goose Canvasback Cattle Egret Common Egret Cinnamon Teal Gadwall Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green-Winged Teal Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Mallard Mute Swan Northern Pintail Northern Shoveler Redhead Ring-Necked Snowy Egret Snow Goose Trumpeter Swan Wood Duck |
Great Blue Heron Scroll down for details  Scientific Name: Ardea herodias Habitat: marshes, lakes, rivers and shores. Appearance: 50-54" long. Very large. Adult mainly blue-grey, with a white head and 2 black crown stripes and a yellow bill. Food: Fish, frogs, snakes, small mammals. Nesting: Nest is a platform of sticks up to 100 feet above ground, or on rocks or cliffs. Female lays 3-7 pale blue or greenish eggs and incubates for about 28 days. Young are downy, leave the nest about 8 weeks after hatching. Usually nests in colonies. |
The great blue heron, or "blue crane"
as it is often called, is the largest, the most widely distributed and the best known of
the American herons. It is a stately bird that is usually seen standing motionless, in
silent precursor to ambush. These birds are social and prefer to nest in large numbers;
rookeries may contain hundreds of their bulky stick nests clustered high in tall trees. If
undisturbed, young herons will remain in the nest until they are as large as their parents
and are fully fledged. They are fed at the nest by both parents, at first on soft,
regurgitated food, and later on whole fish. Additional Photographs: |
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