Ardea
Herodias
Ardea
Herodias
The great blue heron is an interesting bird. This heron is the largest heron or egret in North America and the biggest bird in most swampy areas. It is a member of the Ardeidae family as are all other herons. The great blue heron lives many places on Earth. During the winter, it mainly lives where it breeds. The great blue heron's population is large and stable. The great blue heron is only one of its kind.
The great blue heron is overall gray-blue, huge, tall, and a wader. It is long legged and long necked. It is approximately four feet tall or forty-six inches (one hundred seventeen centimeters) with a wingspan of six to seven feet. The bird is about seventy-two inches wide (one hundred eighty-three centimeters). It has a blue-gray color on its belly, body, and wings. The great blue heron is not very blue. The bird's bill is yellow, long, thick, and sharp. The bird's shoulder is black. The bird's back is mainly a slate-gray color. It has a brownish-buff colored neck with a black being a border. White is the color in front of its neck with a vertical streak that is black. The bird's head is white with a black stripe above its eye. The heron weighs anywhere from five to eight pounds (two to three kilograms). A male and female heron generally have the same description.
The great blue heron has many features to help it with other things. Its long black legs are appropriate for wading in the water. The heron's "spear like" bill is very handy for catching its prey.
Young great blue herons are different from mature herons in many ways. Feathers are on a full-grown heron's back but not on a young great blue heron's back. Instead, a young bird would have brownish-gray back and brownish gray upper wings. Young herons do not have a shaggy neck but a mature heron would. A young heron would have a black cap but a grown bird would not. A young bird would not have any black feathers coming from behind and above the eye to beyond the back of the head. A mature heron has a white crown and face but a young great blue heron would not have that color. A young great blue heron is not the same as a mature great blue heron.
What type of habitat does the great blue heron live in? The great blue heron lives in a sawgrass habitat. It is seen by ponds, lakes, channel markers, trees, radio towers, road ditches, lake edges, rivers, freshwater marshes, swamps, sandbars, tidal mudflats, inland rivers, tidelands, mangroves, saltwater shores, wet meadows, fields, streams, and other wetland areas. Primarily, the heron's habitat is near water.
The great blue heron is a solitary feeder. The heron eats many fish and some land animals. Its detailed diet includes small fish, lizards, frogs, snakes, crawfish, turtles, rodents, crayfish, shrimps, crabs, salamanders, grasshoppers, many water insects, nestlings, small mammals, occasionally human food scraps, shellfish, and small water birds. The great blue heron usually finds its food during the day in shallow water by patiently standing still or walking very slowly. It does not move quickly because it is waiting for its prey to approach and then it strikes its food with its sharp bill. It searches for its food at night if necessary, but it mainly looks for it at dawn and dusk. The heron uses about ninety percent of its active day searching for its prey. The heron usually finds food miles away from its nest.
The great blue heron has a few unusual mating habits. It breeds in North and Central America, the Caribbean, Greater Antilles, and the Galapagos Islands. Usually, the great blue heron breeds during the months of March through May in the Northern Hemisphere. The heron's body changes differently while breeding. The grown heron bird has a yellow bill and long neck feathers only when it breeds. The bird also has long and showy plumes on its head, breast, and back while it is in the breeding season. It breeds in the habitat of brackish and freshwater marshes, fields, and other wetland areas. The male will perform a number of things to attract a female. For example, it flies over its own nest in three hundred and sixty-degree turns. The great blue heron has some unique ways of mating.
Nests are the most important things that all birds need to stay alive. The male and female create the nest. The male presents the nesting items to show to the female and she works the materials into the nest. The heron would nest with groups, small or large often with other herons and egrets. Four to five big nests could be in one tree. Nests are different compared to other species of birds' nests. The heron builds its nest using twigs and small branches. Its nests are also called heronries. New heronries are about eighteen inches (forty-five centimeters) across. Older nests could reach three feet (one meter) across because they are expanded. The nests are usually used many years. The heronries are built twenty to ninety-eight feet (six to thirty meters) above ground. On safe and secure islands, the nests could be built on the ground. The heron's nest could be a small platform of twigs to a big and bulky mass of bushes and reeds. It often lays three to seven big, light bluish-green eggs. The average amount of eggs laid at one period of time is three to four. The eggs are two and a half inches in diameter with the size increasing south to north. Both male and female incubate the eggs. The heron turns the eggs with its bill once about every two hours to keep the eggs evenly warm. The eggs hatch after about twenty-five to twenty-nine days. After the babies are born, the male and female take care of the young until they are old enough to survive on their own. The parent feeding the young would put its bill in the young's throat to feed it partially digested frogs, fish, and other foods. Usually, only one or two of the oldest young live since they are bigger and can fight for food easier than the smaller young can. The young fly after fifty-six to sixty days of their birth and can leave the nest anywhere form five to thirty days after they begin flying. It nests in the spring and the summer from Alaska to Mexico, the Galapagos, and the West Indies. The nests are often miles away from the site in which the heron finds its food.
The great blue heron's feathers are soft and droopy. The bird flies with labored, great, and slow wing beats, its head folded on its shoulders and it legs straight back trailing behind. Its neck is usually held in the shape of an "S" while it is flying. The heron flies very rapidly having speeds up to thirty-five miles per hour (fifty-five kilometers per hour). When it is flying, it might produce a honking type of sound.
The great blue heron has a soft voice compared to other members of the Ardeidae family. It makes a honking sound when it is disturbed in flight. The heron makes a "fraunk" when it is disturbed near its nest. The bird greets other members of its species by pronouncing "ar." It makes loud and harsh croaks when it is scared. The great blue heron has an unusually quiet voice.