Great Blue Heron Information for Kids

The great blue heron is what scientists describe as a wading bird, a species of bird that walks along the edge of or in the water looking for food. The great blue heron is the largest member of the heron family in North America. You can see great blue herons flying overhead or view them along the edges of lakes, ponds, rivers or streams.

  1. Identification

    • The blue heron has an s-shaped neck.

      The great blue heron is not a bright blue--like a blue jay--but rather a bluish-grayish color. The heron has long legs and a lengthy neck shaped like the letter "s." This bird has a long bill and a black stripe that goes from behind the bird's eye toward the back of its neck. The feathers on the heron's neck and back are shaggy, and black feathers known as plumes extend from the top of the heron's head toward the back.

    Size

    • The great blue heron can grow as tall as 54 inches, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Most of its size is in its legs, which need to be long so the bird can wade in the water near the shore. When an adult great blue heron spreads it wings, from one wing tip to the other can measure 6 1/2 feet. You will often see these birds flying with their long necks bent and their heads back toward their body, using the big, powerful flaps of their wings to stay in the air.

    Hunting Herons

    • The diet of the great blue heron consists of aquatic animals, like fish and frogs, as well as small mammals, like mice. The heron walks quietly or stands as still as it can, waiting to see something it can catch with its long bill. The heron will stab at the animal, sticking it with its bill, and then gobble the animal down. Herons have to swallow their food whole and will sometimes choke if the food is too large. These birds are easy to miss when they're hunting since they move so slowly and sometimes stand absolutely still, making them hard to see from a distance.

    Raising a Family

    • While great blue heron usually live by themselves, when it is time to raise babies, these birds will join in a colony of as many as 200 birds. The male heron looks for a good place to build its nest and then tries to attract a female. Once a pair gets together, the male brings twigs and sticks to the female, who then makes them into a nest, usually high in the branches of a tree. The mother and father heron take turns sitting on the eggs until they hatch, which can take up to 29 days. The parents will catch and eat food and then throw it up--which is called regurgitation--when they get return, so the babies can eat it.

    Geography

    • The great blue heron lives across almost all of the United States, according to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds. The bird stays all year in the warmer states, but in states with cold climates, like North Dakota and Minnesota, the great blue heron only spends the spring and summer before heading south to warmer regions. In the winter, many great blue herons will go south to Mexico before returning north in the spring.