Creature Feature – The Great Blue Heron: Facts & Fancy

The Great Blue Heron is a familiar sight, as it silently stalks the rim of area lakes, ponds, and wetlands. This statuesque wading bird is often misidentified as a crane, but is in fact North America’s largest heron species. It can stand over four feet tall with a six-foot wingspan, but typically weighs just five or six pounds on account of its hollow bones.

Another neat fact about the Great Blue Heron is that it has specialized, continuously-growing chest feathers that fray into a powder. During preening, the heron uses a unique fringed claw on its middle toe to distribute the powder in a washcloth-type effect that helps remove fish slime from its plumage. 

This handsome bird is also an excellent hunter. For sure, not much escapes the sharp sight or lightning-fast strike of the stealthy Great Blue Heron, and it will catch and eat fish, frogs, reptiles, rodents, insects, and sometimes other birds. It can even hunt successfully at night.

The Great Blue Heron has a fanciful list of nicknames almost as long as its neck, including Big Cranky, Long Tom, Old Gray, Blue Crane, Poor Joe, Shag Poke, and Big Blue Boy; and in parts of the Deep South, all Great Blue Herons are simply called Fred—with affection, of course!

Article & photo by Margie Manthey