Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
The tall grey sentinel of every American marsh and trout stream. The largest heron in North America and a patient, lethally precise ambush hunter.
Browse the Woodcut Wild shop →Habitat
Great blue herons hunt almost anywhere there's shallow water and small prey: freshwater marshes, river edges, beaver ponds, tidal flats, mangroves, ditches, and the shorelines of large lakes. They nest colonially in tall trees — heronries — sometimes a hundred nests in a single grove of cottonwoods or sycamores.
Behavior
Herons hunt by stillness. A motionless bird stands belly-deep in slow water, neck folded into a tight S, then strikes in a blur — a dagger bill driven through fish, frog, snake, vole, or duckling. They are mostly silent except for a deep guttural croak when flushed. In flight they fold the neck back against the shoulders, distinguishing them from cranes, which fly with necks extended. Pairs perform elaborate courtship displays on the nest: bill clapping, stick presentations, and the slow erection of long plumes from the back and breast.
Marginalia
- Despite a wingspan over six feet, an adult great blue weighs only about five pounds — hollow bones and feathered economy.
- They can swallow fish almost as wide as their own necks, and have been known to choke trying.
- The all-white morph found in southern Florida and the Caribbean was once considered a separate species — the Great White Heron.
- Specialized feathers on the breast crumble into a fine powder that herons use to clean fish slime and oil from their plumage.
- A great blue's strike from neck-folded to fish-impaled takes about a tenth of a second.
