Bird Of The Week: Great Blue Heron
Kai Goldstein | April 22, 2025
Photos courtesy of Vienne Paulsen
Great Blue Heron || Ardea herodias
Great Blue Herons, with their impressive size and slow movements, may appear as heavy creatures, but they weigh around five pounds on average. Still, they are as fierce as their size implies, eating nearly any animal within reach of their spring-like neck. This includes frogs, fish, reptiles, other birds, mammals and insects. They hunt their food by observing, stalking, grabbing, impaling and then shaking to kill them. When breeding, they often nest in colonies numbering in the hundreds. An annual divorce is in store for these seasonally monogamous birds, who choose a new partner yearly. They also possess a unique adaptation; their chest contains specialized feathers that grow throughout their whole life and fray continuously, providing a powder-like material they can use to clean grime and oil off their body. These beautiful herons were found at Jordan Lake in Apex, NC, and can be found across most of the U.S. year-round, including locally.