heron

The grey heron Ardea cinerea can be seen in this typical fishing pose from western Europe through Asia to Japan and down into much of Africa and Madagascar. It builds an untidy stick nest, usually high up in trees, forming colonies known as heronries.

Large to medium-sized wading bird belonging to the same family as bitterns, egrets, night herons, and boatbills. Herons have sharp bills, broad wings, long legs, slender bodies, and soft plumage. They are found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions, but also in temperate zones, on lakes, fens, and mudflats, where they wade searching for prey. (Genera include Ardea, Butorides, and Nycticorax; family Ardeidae, order Ciconiiformes.)

They capture small animals, such as fish, molluscs, and worms, by spearing them with their long bills. Herons nest in trees or bushes, on ivy-covered rocks, or in reedbeds, making a loose fabric of sticks lined with grass or leaves; they lay greenish or drab-coloured eggs, varying in number from two to seven according to the different species.

The great blue heron (A. herodias) is native to North America. Gray-blue overall, breeding adults have yellowish bills and ornate plumes on the head, neck, and back. They are waders, feeding mainly on fish and frogs.

Other heron species include A. alba, the great white heron, which is 1 m/3 ft long, and ranges from central Europe to Africa and Asia; A. occidentalis, the white heron of Florida, an even larger bird; and A. goliath, probably the largest of all species, which has a reddish head, neck, and underface.

The night herons (genus Nycticorax) are remarkable for the long feathers at the back of the head, blackish or white in colour, which are lost for a time after breeding; the species vary greatly in colouring.