Great Blue Heron

Ardea Herodias

A Great Blue Heron is a common sight at Ridgefield, so much so that I don’t think I have ever visited the Refuge and not seen at least one. Usually motionless among the cattails and grasses, this statue-like large bird can be identified by its grayish overall coloring, pale belly, dark streaks on the neck, brownish feathers mixed throughout, black crown and head plumes, and signature “s” shaped neck curl. These herons also have an orange-yellow bill and legs.

Great Blue Herons can develop a rusty-colored shoulder patch, and in the breeding season adults have dense, shaggy plumes of feathers on their back and neck. Despite their impressive size, Great Blue Herons weigh only 5 to 6 pounds, thanks in part to their hollow bones—a feature all birds share. There is an all-white subspecies of Great Blue Heron in coastal southern Florida known as the “Great White Heron.” Size-wise, these birds are larger than the Great Egrets of the Refuge, but smaller than the Sandhill Cranes.

Great Blue Herons are easy to identify in the sky too, by their heavy and very slow wingbeats, and very broad wings. They usually fly with their neck pulled back and head tucked in to their shoulders, and feet trailing behind the tail feathers.

When hunting, Great Blue Herons wade slowly, stalking fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds. With lightning-fast reflexes and accuracy, they thrust their neck

and head and stab with their bill to impale larger species, or grab smaller food with their strong mandibles, swallowing it whole.

You can find these herons in salt and freshwater habitats – anywhere from open coasts, marshes, sloughs, riverbanks and lakes, to backyard ponds (if you have a heron eating your goldfish, get a heron-sized cutout/silhouette and they will leave your fish alone! Or, A length of drain pipe placed in the pond can provide fish with a place to hide from feeding herons). They can also be spotted out in grassy pastures, but when breeding, they gather up into colonies or “heronries” and build large stick nests high off of the ground (or re-use leftover hawk or eagle nests).

Did You Know? These birds may live in the muck, but they don’t like to be dirty – Great Blue Herons have specialized feathers on their chest that continually grow and fray. The herons comb this “powder down” with a fringed claw on their middle toes, using the down like a washcloth to remove fish slime and other oils from their feathers as they preen. Applying the powder to their underparts protects their feathers against the slime and oils of swamps.

-Samantha Zeiner, FRNWR Administrative Coordinator