Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
They possess specialized 'powder down' feathers on their chest that they crumble into a fine dust to help clean fish slime and oils from their plumage.
- Scientific name
- Ardea herodias
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Pelecaniformes › Ardeidae › Ardea
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Freshwater and saltwater wetlands, mangrove swamps, lake shores, and tidal flats.
- Diet
- Opportunistic carnivore eating fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and large insects.
- Range
- North America, Central America, Galapagos Islands, Caribbean
- Size
- Height: 3.2–4.5 ft; Wingspan: 5.5–6.6 ft
- Lifespan
- 15-24 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat loss due to coastal development, water pollution, and human disturbance at nesting sites.
- Safe to approach?
- Generally harmless and shy. Maintain a distance of at least 30 feet to avoid flight response. If the bird is injured, do not attempt rescue without eye protection; their beak is a powerful defensive weapon aimed at the face. Contact local wildlife rehabilitators if it appears distressed.
The great blue heron ( Ardea herodias ) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. An all-white population found only in the Caribbean and Florida was once treated as a separate species...
Photo: Basar, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
Plain-text version: /species/fd358ca6-d86e-4918-8a69-c2b9851ba21d.md