How to Find and Identify a Great Blue Heron
- 1). Monitor swamps and bogs along roadsides. The great blue heron’s diet consists of fish, frogs and other small creatures that live in and around the water. They can be seen wading in a swamp or smallish pond looking for food. When they spot something, they spear it with their long beaks and swallow it whole. They have been known to choke to death after attempting to swallow a fish that was too large to go down.
- 2). Scan the sky for a very large silhouette of a bird. The great blue heron has a wingspan on the average of well over 5 feet. With their elongated necks and big bodies, they are not inconspicuous as they fly. Sometimes as they fly, they let out a hoarse call. The heron flies with its head, body and legs kept in a solid line, flapping its wings to carry it through the air.
- 3). Get in a boat or canoe and cruise around a lake. Keep one eye peeled on the shoreline and the other on the skies. By watching sharply on shore, the chances are excellent that you will spot a great blue heron--that is, if it moves. They can stand as still as a statue when fishing, making them almost impossible to see against the background of trees and leaves.
- 4). Go to your local fish hatchery. Great blue herons are smart enough to know when the pickings are easy, and they gather at fish hatcheries where they can find a meal without much effort. Their presence there is actually a benefit since they eat most of the fish that weren’t going to make it anyway. Those fish spend more time near the surface of the water and are snapped up by the herons.
- 5). Look for the tallest trees along rivers and lakes. The great blue heron builds its nest in the tallest trees around, with several herons choosing the same tree as home. The nest is constructed of sticks. Great blue herons often choose sycamore trees for nesting, because the mottled coloring of the bark gives them extra camouflage against enemies.
