Green Heron

Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!

Our species this week is the Green Heron!

Butorides virescens

We have a lovely bird for our Wildlife of the Week! It’s the Green Heron, the smaller cousin of the common Great Blue Heron.

These herons are much smaller and harder to spot than the great blue herons found on the Refuge. They are small and stocky, standing around 18 inches tall (great blue herons are about 48 inches tall) and often keep their neck drawn into their body. They have a reddish-brown neck, a dark-capped head, and green-tinted wings, and they blend in well in wetland habitats. For this reason they are much harder to spot than the great blue heron.

Green herons are found in riparian zones, lakes, wetlands, ponds, and swamps. They mainly eat small fish, frogs, and crayfish but will take any prey they can catch, including earthworms, dragonflies, grasshoppers, tadpoles, and snakes. They typically stand motionless on shore, in shallow water or on a limb and silently await prey. They can be found on the refuge during the summer months, but they are year-round residents along the Gulf. A fun fact about the green heron is that it will use tools to fish! They will drop insects, feathers, and pieces of food at the surface of the water to attract fish that they can then snatch up!

The green heron in the photo was spotted hunting for prey in Dinsmore Slough

(Photo by Tom Ress)