GREAT BLUE HERON

L 38" W 70"

Video Clip (In flight)

Taped in Greenwood, Texas in January 2001

Video Clip (Feeding)

Taped in Greenwood, Texas in January 2001

FIELD IDENTIFICATION: This is the largest of the North American herons and egrets.  It has a gray-blue body, streaked foreneck, and mostly white head with a black stripe above the eye.  In breeding plumage, it has plumes on the head, neck and back.  The beak is yellow-orange, and has more yellow when not in breeding plumage.  This bird is commonly seen wading along the water's edge, or flying with heavy, laboring strokes.  The similar Little Blue Heron is smaller, with shallower wing-beats.

There is a white phase of the Great Blue Heron, but it occurs only in Florida.  The white phase can be told from the Great Egret by its yellow legs.

Juvenile Great Blue Heron taken at the Heard Museum Sanctuary on March 31, 2000 in McKinney, Texas by Claire Curry

Track of a Great Blue Heron or a Great Egret.

Photo by Claire Curry in the Summer 2001 near Greenwood, Texas