Still and silent, standing on the edge of a river bank, you catch the silhouette of a majestic bird. With its long legs, sinuous neck, and sword-like bill your attention turns completely toward the Great Blue Heron standing there. Whether at a river bank or a sandy shore, open coast or marshy wetlands, or even in your backyard pond, these adaptable creatures can be found almost anywhere you set your sights. But do not be fooled by these beautiful birds, they can easily turn a quiet picnic lunch into a comedy show for your enjoyment just by opening their mouths. Their loud, sometimes obnoxious, calls are quite unique and almost comical. They may also be the culprit behind the disappearance of the fish in your pond which you have been blaming on the neighborhood, beady eyed, bandit.

 

The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is the largest of the North American herons around

2.9kg (Sibley, 2016) and standing anywhere from 3.2-4.5 feet tall. They are easily identified both stationary and in flight. Their color is very distinct and looks grey-blue from a distance with a large black stripe above their yellow eyes. You can often catch them standing still in shallow water awaiting their next meal. In flight, the Great Blue Heron pulls its neck into an S shape close to its body and extends its feet out behind, from above you can see their two toned wings, pale on the front edge and darker flight feathers extended behind (Cornell University: All About Birds). Although these birds are large and easily noticed, when out of sight, they can also be recognized by their “barking” call or trumpeting fraaahnk.

 

It is challenging to distinguish between males and females of this species as they do not reach

maturity until they are 3 years old. Unless sighted as a mating pair, standing side by side, it is almost impossible to tell males and females apart from a distance. The main difference between the two is their size. Males are usually larger and heavier (6-8 lbs) and females smaller (4.5-6 lbs), the males also have a larger bill (Barton. M., 2017). These large bills, seen in both sexes, are used to kill and capture their prey.

 

Herons are excellent fishers and can be seen wading in the shallow waters of freshwater rivers and saltwater beach habitats as well as marshes and ponds. They move slow and methodically, or stand completely, still until their prey comes within reach and then, like a dagger, strike the fish with their bill and swallow it whole. Although they are best known as being avid fishermen (and women), they cannot be discounted from the terrestrial hunting community. The Great Blue Heron is definitely not a picky eater, they will also scour grasslands and agricultural fields for mice, insects and other small mammals (National Geographic). With their generalist diets one would expect that the Great Blue Heron would also be found nesting in a variety of different locations as to not stray too far from their food sources.

 

 

 

The nesting behaviors of Great Blue Herons are significantly different than their day to day feeding behaviors, while they tend to spend most of their time as solitary creatures they nest in colonies. When it is time to breed, it is the male who chooses a suitable nesting place and displays to the females by flying above the chosen site, stretching out his neck, and snapping his bill (Audubon, n.d.). Great Blue Herons do not mate for life, but have extensive courtship rituals which help to form a bond. Once pairs are formed females build the nests out of sticks, supplied by the male, high off the ground away from predators.  Multiple mating pairs form the colony or “heronry” of anywhere between a few, to hundreds of herons (Monks, 2017). Heronries are most often found in high trees close to, or along the edge of, a water source. However, anthropogenic (human caused) effects and predation are taking a toll on the sites of heronries as you can read about in my second blog post. With their wide distribution and generalist feeding behaviors development and expansion by humans is having a huge effect on the nesting sites and breeding success of this species.