The Great Blue Heron is one big bird - the largest and most common heron in North America. When they're full grown, from wing tip to wing tip, they measure as big as the height of a professional basketball player. If you're are an average 11-year-old standing next to a Great Blue Heron, you'll be looking right into its beady eyes. Now that's pretty big not the biggest bird out there, but still impressive.
They have snake-like, slender necks, big bodies on tall skinny legs and knees that bend backwards. You'll spot them near open water and wetlands from Central to North America and Doctor E has seen them in the Caribbean and even some in Europe. When you see one flying, you'll know it by its slow, sweeping wing beats, its long trailing legs and its neck scrunched into its shoulders. If you're lucky enough to get a closer look, the great blue heron is grayish in color, and usually has a yellow bill, a white face, and black on its shoulders, crown, and belly.
What and How They Eat: You have to be patient if you're watching the Great Blue Heron hunt. They stand very, very still for a long time in the water, or move verrrrry slowly until they see a tasty morsel, then they open their beak like a set of BBQ tongs and grab and eat the prey. Great Blue Herons mostly eat fish but Doctor E says they're not that picky and gobble down snakes, insects, mice, frogs and other smaller animals.
Making Babies: Most of the year Great Blue Herons live alone, except when it's time to breed. They gather together at the same place year after year called a heronry. First the male finds the perfect tree for the nest. He is looking for a tall sturdy tree to put a nest up high. If he's lucky, he'll find a tree with an old nest that he and his new mate can remodel. Now it's time to find a lady; he has to attract a new mate every year. If you are a lady Great Blue Heron, you pick the guy that does the best job of rapidly sticking his neck in and out and screeching loudly. After that's settled, the new pair make a nice roomy nest for the family-- 3 feet tall and wide. Mom lays 3-5 pale, greenish-blue eggs, but not all at once. Mom and dad sit on the eggs for the 25-29 days they take to hatch, dad during the day and mom at night.
The chicks eat and eat. Mom and dad feed the chicks with swallowed food that is spit back up into his or her beak (yummy, right?); because the chicks hatch over several days, the older chicks learn how to get to the food first, eating more and becoming bigger. If there isn't enough food, the bigger chicks push the little ones out of the nest, sadly ending the littler birds; lives. At 8 weeks the young birds learn to fly and leave the nest, coming back for food and a warm place to sleep (hey, free food and a warm bed is a good thing). By 10 weeks, the young birds, almost as big as mom and dad, leave the nest for good. Young Great Blue Herons don't start their own family until they are two years old.
Great Blue Heron Stats:
| Size: |
3 - 4.5 feet (1 - 1.5 meters) |
| Wingspread: |
5.5 - 6.5 feet (11/2 - 2 meters) |
| Weight: |
4- 7lbs (2 - 2.5 kg) |
| Flying Speed: |
20 - 30 mph (32 - 48 km/h) |
| How long they live: |
15 years |
| Where they live: |
From Coastal Alaska to southern Canada, and Nova Scotia all the way south to Mexico and the West Indies |
| Where they hang out: |
Anywhere there's salt and fresh water like marshes, swamps, lake edges, saltwater shores, and rivers. |
| Migration: |
None unless food is scarce in winter |
| Diet: |
Fish and other small animals |
| Population: |
Too many to count and growing. |
| Group Name: |
Colony |
| Baby's Name: |
Chicks |
Interesting Facts about the Great Blue Heron:
- Hollow bones: Yes, these birds have hollow bones, which is how such a big bird is light enough to fly
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- Backwards knees: They are kind of funny to watch walk -- Doctor E says, check out this video Link or video here
- Beaks like BBQ tongs: If you thought they speared their food, you'd be wrong. If you think about it, how would they get the food in their mouth if their beak was stuck in the food? No, they open their mouth wide and clamp down fast on the fish or small animal.
- Eyebrows?: Well, not really, but they have a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of their head that really looks like eyebrows.
- Powder Down: Great Blue Herons have very special feathers, called powder down that grows like hair with fine ends that break off easily. The birds use a comb-like claw on the middle toe of each foot to rub the down and turn the ends powdery. The powder is used to either clean the other feathers or to keep swap slime and oils from sticking to the underside of their bodies.
- "S" is for SPRING: The Great Blue Heron unusual "S" shaped neck allows it to spring quickly like a coil in order to catch prey. The unique way it moves also allows the heron to fold its neck back into its shoulders during flight to move more easily through the air. Remember how the male Great Blue Heron attracts a lady by sticking his neck in and rapidly? Maybe the lady bird is looking for the guy with the fastest and best moving neck.
- "Big Cranky": The Great Blue Heron has many common names, including Big Cranky, The Grandfather, Blue Crane, Gray Crane, Long John, and Poor Joe.
Threats to the Great Blue Heron
- Predators: Adult Great Blue Herons have few natural predators. However, bobcats, coyotes, red-tailed hawks, crows, and bald eagles will occasionally kill an adult.
- Humans: Though they may not be food to other wild animals, we humans can do them great harm. If we destroy the wetlands, shoreline trees, and other nesting habitats, we take away the Great Blue heron's home. Eelgrass beds in wetlands, where the Great Blue Heron finds most of its food is being destroyed by people. Human movement and noise near heronries disturbs the heron families and can make the population go down.
How You Can Help
- Preserve shoreline trees
- Protect eelgrass meadows
- Reduce human pollution and noise near nesting colonies
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