Green Heron
This young Green Heron sports a large beak and large feet.
He is a very anxious eater.

• The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) is a small stocky wading bird. It is the size of a crow, weighing about 8 ½ ounces, and is 12-18 inches long.

• They hold their necks up tight against their bodies. Green Herons have a greenish-black cap, a greenish back, and wings which are a grey–black color grading into green. Their necks are chestnut color and a white line goes down their chest. They have short yellow legs and a long, dark sharp bill.
Both sexes have basically the same coloring but the female is slightly smaller, with duller, lighter coloring.

• Some populations migrate and some do not. Green Herons are found in small wetlands in low-lying areas. They are most conspicuous at dusk and dawn because they are mostly nocturnal.

• The diet of the Green Heron consists of small fish, frogs and aquatic arthropods but they also eat invertebrates. They typically stand very still on the shore, in shallow water or perch in branches and wait for prey.

• The most interesting fact about the Green Heron is that they are one of the few species birds known to use a tool. Sometimes they drop food or small objects into the water to attract fish.

• Females lay 3-6 bluish-white glossy eggs in a nest made of sticks built in a tree or reeds or cattails in a marsh. Both parents incubate the eggs which hatch in 3 weeks. Chicks fledge in about 3 weeks.

• The conservation status of the Green Heron is considered widespread and common.