Description
The great blue heron is a majestic pre-historic looking bird with a wing-span of up to seven feet and standing height of over four feet. Typically seen along streams, rivers and ponds, they appear statue-like as they hunt for food, until in a flash, they spear their aquatic prey. In flight, herons are distinguished from cranes by the way they fold their necks back into an S-shape close to their body. Named for their stature and azure gray-blue plumage, heron colonies return in early spring to large treetop nests in established riparian rookeries year after year for the breeding season.
