Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
The adult Great Blue Heron is a tall wading bird of marshes, lakeshores, rivers, mangroves, and coastal flats across much of North America. It usually hunts alone, standing motionless or walking slowly before snapping its S-shaped neck forward to spear fish, amphibians, small mammals, reptiles, and large insects. Its broad wings carry it with slow, deep beats, but its main combat strength is the sudden precision of its bill strike at the water’s edge. Despite its large size, it weighs only a few kilograms because of its lightweight bird skeleton.
- Type
- Water
- Conservation status
- LC
Growth chain
- Great Blue Heron Chick
- Great Blue Heron Juvenile
- Great Blue Heron