Details
Ardea cinerea
The grey heron is a large heron widespread around waters of the Palearctic, Africa, and the Indomalayan region. With long legs and neck, it waits in shallows for fish.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It uses rivers, lakes, marshes, rice fields, estuaries, and coastal shallows. Colonies are built in trees or reedbeds near feeding waters.
Length is 84-102 cm and weight 1-2.1 kg. It has grey wings, a white head, black crest plumes, and a long yellow bill; in flight the neck is folded into an S.
Diurnal and colonial at nests, it often feeds alone. It stands motionless in shallow water, then strikes by extending the neck rapidly.
A carnivore, it eats fish, frogs, crustaceans, small mammals, and insects. It is an opportunistic predator of many waterside animals.
Stick nests are built high in trees or reedbeds within colonies. Both adults incubate and feed chicks by regurgitating fish and other prey.
It is listed as Least Concern. It adapts to waters near towns, though breeding colonies can be sensitive to disturbance.
