The Great Blue Heron

Al Lowe
Contributor

A bird which stands over four feet high, has a wingspan of six feet and up, and makes some of the most raucous croaks in the world, is hard to overlook. This heron is found all across the southern parts of Canada, through much of Northern Ontario, and into the prairies. It is always most common around lakes, rivers, ponds and, of course, the salt shores.

The principal food of this bird is fish. It will eat many other things like frogs, toads, crayfish, mice, voles, and small birds, as well as insects, but the staple of its diet is fish.

Th Blue Heron has two methods of getting these fish. One is to stand perfectly still in the water and wait for a fish to come by. Then with lightning speed that long sharp beak streaks out to impale its prey. It rarely misses.

The other method is to stalk. It will move slowly and with great caution through the shallow water or the reeds, head down this time, until it comes across some unlucky frog. Once again the lightning stroke and another meal is taken. That beak, by the way, is extremely dangerous. If you should ever come across as wounded or sick bird, exercise great care. That long beak can take out your eye or lay your cheek open in a flash.

Herons nest in colonies. They build huge, clumsy looking nests in the tops of trees sometimes several to a tree. The adults feed the very young by regurgitating food and by giving them whole fish when they are older. The young birds stay in the nest until they are as large as their parents.

A heronry, as it is called, is not a pleasant place. The young birds try to keep the nest clean by defecating over the side: they often don’t make it. When they do, the white excrement kills the leaves on the trees, the plants under the trees, and eventually the trees themselves.

There may be anywhere from 15 to a hundred nests in a colony, each with three or four young birds. The smell of all the excrement, plus bits of rotting fish, along with dead or dying vegetation make a heronry a pretty revolting place on a hot summer day.

You will lose herons on the shore, moving along with stately tread, or standing like a statue. They are quite shy of people, and will take off at the first sight of you. They move through the air with slow and dignified strokes of those great wings. They are active at night. Even if you can’t see him, you can hear the guttural croaks and squawks he makes as he leaves home.

The amount of game fish eaten by herons is quite insignificant, so these great and stately birds are fully protected by the law. Our race of Blue Herons is a fairly dark one, giving the impression of a slaty blue bird. The adults, when fully mature, have white heads with black streaks, and black on the rings as well.

The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is one of our most noteworthy birds. The landscape around our northern lakes would not be the same without it.

By Al Lowe

Contributor

A bird which stands over four feet high, has a wingspan of six feet and up, and makes some of the most raucous croaks in the world, is hard to overlook. This heron is found all across the southern parts of Canada, through much of Northern Ontario, and into the prairies. It is always most common around lakes, rivers, ponds and, of course, the salt shores.

The principal food of this bird is fish. It will eat many other things like frogs, toads, crayfish, mice, voles, and small birds, as well as insects, but the staple of its diet is fish.

Th Blue Heron has two methods of getting these fish. One is to stand perfectly still in the water and wait for a fish to come by. Then with lightning speed that long sharp beak streaks out to impale its prey. It rarely misses.

The other method is to stalk. It will move slowly and with great caution through the shallow water or the reeds, head down this time, until it comes across some unlucky frog. Once again the lightning stroke and another meal is taken. That beak, by the way, is extremely dangerous. If you should ever come across as wounded or sick bird, exercise great care. That long beak can take out your eye or lay your cheek open in a flash.

Herons nest in colonies. They build huge, clumsy looking nests in the tops of trees sometimes several to a tree. The adults feed the very young by regurgitating food and by giving them whole fish when they are older. The young birds stay in the nest until they are as large as their parents.

A heronry, as it is called, is not a pleasant place. The young birds try to keep the nest clean by defecating over the side: they often don’t make it. When they do, the white excrement kills the leaves on the trees, the plants under the trees, and eventually the trees themselves.

There may be anywhere from 15 to a hundred nests in a colony, each with three or four young birds. The smell of all the excrement, plus bits of rotting fish, along with dead or dying vegetation make a heronry a pretty revolting place on a hot summer day.

You will lose herons on the shore, moving along with stately tread, or standing like a statue. They are quite shy of people, and will take off at the first sight of you. They move through the air with slow and dignified strokes of those great wings. They are active at night. Even if you can’t see him, you can hear the guttural croaks and squawks he makes as he leaves home.

The amount of game fish eaten by herons is quite insignificant, so these great and stately birds are fully protected by the law. Our race of Blue Herons is a fairly dark one, giving the impression of a slaty blue bird. The adults, when fully mature, have white heads with black streaks, and black on the rings as well.

The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is one of our most noteworthy birds. The landscape around our northern lakes would not be the same without it.