Great Blue Heron

North America's largest heron, a patient fish hunter of marshes, shores and city ponds.

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The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird of the heron family, common along shorelines and wetlands across most of North and Central America, the Caribbean, northwestern South America and the Galápagos Islands. It is the biggest heron native to North America, standing 115 - 138 cm tall with a wingspan of 167 – 201 cm. A top predator in many wetland food webs, it is also a useful indicator of ecosystem health because it is sensitive to contaminants that build up in its prey. An all-white population in South Florida is known as the great white heron.

Quick Facts

Genus: Ardea
Species: herodias

Facts from the source article.

Background

Carl Linnaeus included the great blue heron among the species he described in Systema Naturae, and both parts of its scientific name mean heron. In the Old World its role is taken by the slightly smaller grey heron, and together with the Cocoi heron of South America the two form a superspecies. Five subspecies are recognised. The white form of South Florida and the Florida Keys was long considered a separate species, and David Sibley has again lent some support to that view. Birds intermediate between the two forms, dark-bodied with white heads, are called Würdemann's heron.