Great Blue Heron Information
Question: Do you know how much a great blue heron eats in a typical day
Herons are capable of eating copious amounts of fish, on a daily basis. One source (Protect Your Pond) says "An adult heron can easily consume up to 1lb of fish per day." Another source (Fun Facts About Great Blue Herons) says "A blue heron will eat up to 13 ounces of food on a daily basis - unless they are feeding their young. With hungry mouths to feed, they need twice as much. That is a lot of fish, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates."
What and how do Great Blue Herons eat?
To learn more about great blue herons, view these field guides:
Question: Do you know how much a great blue heron eats in a typical day
Herons are capable of eating copious amounts of fish, on a daily basis. One source (Protect Your Pond) says "An adult heron can easily consume up to 1lb of fish per day." Another source (Fun Facts About Great Blue Herons) says "A blue heron will eat up to 13 ounces of food on a daily basis - unless they are feeding their young. With hungry mouths to feed, they need twice as much. That is a lot of fish, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates."
What and how do Great Blue Herons eat?
- According to American Bird Conservancy: Herons are not picky eaters. The Great Blue Heron will eat whatever it can catch with its formidable bill: fish, crustaceans, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, and birds - especially ducklings. It usually forages alone, locating food by sight. Once a Great Blue Heron spots a meal, it strikes quickly, straightening its long, powerful neck and grabbing its quarry with its spear-like bill, then swallowing it whole. Excellent night vision allows this versatile wading bird to hunt in darkness as well as in daylight.
- According to the Audubon Field Guide: Herons forage mostly by standing still or walking very slowly in shallow water, waiting for fish to swim near, then striking with rapid thrust of bill. They forage on shore, from floating objects, and in grassland. They may hunt by day or night. Their diet is highly variable and adaptable. Herons eat mostly fish, but also frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes, insects, rodents, birds. Herons have been seen stalking voles and gophers in fields, capturing rails at edge of marsh, eating many species of small waterbirds.
- Name of their nesting sites: rookery
- A group of herons: heronry
- Size of their nests: Up to 4’ x 4’
- Where they nest: Usually in trees 20-60' above ground or water; sometimes in low shrubs, sometimes on ground (on predator-free islands), sometimes well above 100' in tree.
- The nest building: Nest (built mostly by female, with material gathered mostly by male) is a platform of sticks, sometimes quite large.
- Eggs and young: Number of eggs - 3-5, sometimes 2-7. Pale blue. Incubation is by both sexes, 25-30 days. Both parents feed young, by regurgitation. Young capable of flight at about 60 days, depart nest at about 65-90 days. 1 brood per year in north, sometimes 2 in south.
To learn more about great blue herons, view these field guides:

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