Theme Thursday - Animal - The Great Blue Heron

While Pelican watching...

a Great Blue Heron flew onto this dock...

On the bay in Fulton, Texas there is an old rickety boardwalk going out to some little boats where the shore birds love to visit. One day I was watching the pelicans when over my shoulder flew in a Great Blue Heron and landed majestically in front of me.

and landed majestically among the seagulls & a cormorant

Along side the heron to the right is a cormorant and seagulls all around.

and stood in a stately manner surveying his domain.

Isn't this a majestic looking bird? He/she is a loner and appears to have no fear.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias): This is the largest and most widespread heron in North America. It can be found along ocean shores, fresh water ponds and rivers. The color of mature birds is gray, it has long legs, and a long "S" shaped neck. There is a white striped crown on its head and ruffled feathers at the base of its neck and back. The herons back, wings, and underside are a bluish-gray color. The legs and bill are a pale yellow color. The size is 97 to 137 cm or 34 to 54 in. The wingspan is 167 to 201 cm or 66 to79 in. The heron weighs 2100 to 2500 gm or 74 to 88 oz. Both sexes look alike which is dissimilar to most birds where the male is generally more brilliant in color.

The diet of the Great Blue Heron is mostly fish, but will eat other small animals for example voles, frogs, birds and small lizards.

We find the Great Blue Heron year around in Texas and in most of the United States except the more northern of the mid-western states. Their range in summer during breeding season is from southern Alaska and central Canada to Central America and the Caribbean. In winter they are found from southern Canada southward as far as northern South America and along the west and east coasts as far north as Alaska & Nova Scotia. They live in rural or urban areas as long as there is a good water supply such as ponds or rivers.

The Great Blue nests in colonies sometimes as a lone pair and other times with several groups in an especially nice thicket around a pond or river. Their nests are large, made of sticks, grass and reeds, or sticks and are found high in trees. I read that they occasionally make nests on the ground. The eggs are a dull pale blue and are generally 2 to 6 eggs in a clutch. The chicks are covered in a pale gray down and with open eyes and able to hold their heads up just after hatching.

Resource: Cornell Lab of Ornithology "All About Birds"