- Ardea herodias
Description
It forms a superspecies with Cocoi Heron (A. cocoi) and Grey Heron (A. cinerea). Indeed some authorities consider Great Blue Heron to be a sub-species of Grey Heron.
Identification
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias RANGE Breeds in south-east Alaska and across southern Canada from British Columbia to Quebec, and throughout most of the USA and coastal areas of Mexico. Also breeds on Cuba and Jamaica, has recently bred for the fist time in Bermuda where a regular visitor and breeds on the Galapagos Islands.
Northernmost birds migratory and winter range extends from breeding areas south to the West Indies, Panama and coastal northern South America. Post-breeding dispersal may take birds north to Newfoundland and Greenland and recorded about 12 times in the Azores, also on the Canary Islands and on Boa Vista in the Cape Verde Islands in March 2002. One was present on Ouessant, France in April 1996 and has also occurred as a ship-assisted vagrant in Belgium.
HABITAT Margins of lakes and slow-flowing rivers, swamps and marshes, frequently on sea-coasts, in estuaries and mangroves.
SUBSPECIES Race fannini occurs in western North America, darker and shorter-billed tann nominate, herodias occurs in the east and the large and pale wardi in the south-east. The very distinctive Great White Heron occidentalis occurs in southern Florida and has been recorded in Cuba, St Thomas, on islands off Venezuela and on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. This race differs from other races in entirely white plumage and was formerly given species rank although white-headed intermediates occur in Florida Bay and the Keys known as W�rdemann�s Heron. Galapagos birds are paler than nominate and separated as cognata.
