Ardea herodias

Great blue herons spend lots of time near water hunting for fish, frogs, lizards, and insects. You may also see the four-foot-tall, blue-grey birds flying over your neighborhood with their necks folded back on their shoulders. In North Carolina, these mostly solitary birds form nesting colonies in February and March. Nests are platforms of sticks high in trees, usually near water. Both parents incubate and feed the young, who take flight about two months after birth.

Cool Links:

BioKids Great Blue Heron page - Information, photos, specimens, sounds & classification.

Puget Sound Shorelines Great Blue Heron page - Natural history and conservation notes from the Washington Dept. of Ecology.

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