Great Blue Heron

LC - Least Concern

N5B, N5N - Secure Breeding and Nonbreeding

SNRB - Unranked Breeding

not listed

Great Blue Heron is the largest heron native to North America. They are present in Minnesota from March through October and winter along the ice-free coasts and watercourses of southeastern United States and the Caribbean. Most live about 15 years in the wild, though some have been recorded surviving over 24 years.

Adults are 38″ to 54″ long, weigh 74 to 88 ounces, and have a wingspan of about 7′. Males are slightly larger than females.

The wings and back are bluish-gray except for a black shoulder patch. The legs are long, stilt-like, and dark gray except for chestnut brown feathers on the thighs. The chest and belly are whitish. The neck is long and curving. It is grayish-blue on the back, whitish underneath, and with white, black, and rust-brown.

The eyes are yellow. The bill is long, straight, and yellow. The face is white with a black stripe extending from the bill to the back of the head. During Breeding season both males and females develop long, slender, black plumes extending from the back of the head and long plumes extending from the body at the neck, breast, and back.

In flight, the neck is folded over the body in an S-curve and the legs trail behind the body.

38″ to 54″in length

72″ wingspan

A harsh, croaking kraak when disturbed

Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) is much smaller and darker. The legs are black.

Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) is darker above, white below.

Rivers, lake edges, marshes, saltwater shores, and swamps

March to October

Great Blue Herons typically breed in colonies of a few to a few hundred nesting pairs. They are serially monogamous, remaining with one partner throughout the Breeding season but choosing a new partner each season. They produce one brood per season.

The male selects a site, usually at the top of a tree, often the same site used the previous year, and attracts a passing female. Together they build the nest, the male gathering materials, the female weaving the materials into a platform nest. Often a fresh layer is added to a nest from a previous season.

The female lays usually 4, but as few as 2 or as many as 7, pale blue eggs. The eggs hatch after 26 to 30 days. The young leave the nest after 60 to 81 days.

Mostly small fish but also amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, dragonflies, grasshoppers, crayfish, and other aquatic invertebrates.

Common migrant and breeder

The Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union All Seasons Species Occurrence Map

Bitterns, egrets, and herons (family Ardeidae) were formerly classified under the order Ciconiiformes. Based on a phylogenomic study published in 2008, the family was transferred to the order Pelecaniformes.

A Great Blue Heron in flight in The Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge.

Urban parks host a large variety of wildlife if you really spend some time observing.

Heron & painted turtle in Maplewood Hts Park

Crosby Farm Regional Park

Fort Snelling State Park, Near the boat launch on Snelling Lake

Unknown subspecies on wintering grounds at Padre Island, Texas

Location: Minneapolis Minnesota Rookery

Location: Lake Fremont, Zimmerman MN

Location: Spirit Lake, Menahga MN

Location: Turtle Lake #31072500 in Marcell, MN

Walked along our ice ridge (shoreline & marsh area) and in the lake on the west side of the lake, picking up sticks and setting them back down, hunting, catching & eating small fish.

Location: Bear Cave school, Stewartville, MN

Location: Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge

A Great Blue Heron flew into the marsh between Pool 7 and the West pool. Landing among the reeds and yellow pond lilies near the edges of the marsh in The Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge.

Location: Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge

A Great Blue Heron in flight in The Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge.

Location: Big Lake, MN

Saw a great blue heron, first time, in my back yard in a tree over the pond in Big Lake, MN.

Location: Becker County

Location: North Stillwater MN

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Location: Lake Susan in Chanhassen

Location: Crosby Farm Regional Park

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Urban parks host a large variety of wildlife if you really spend some time observing.

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Pentax K10D DA 55-300mm @ 300mm

1/4000th, f7.1, ISO 800 handheld- a little patience and luck in Maplewood Hts Park, my backyard. ~2008

Our resident heron

Location: Maplewood Heights Park

Heron & painted turtle in Maplewood Hts Park

Location: Pond along Cannon Valley Trail

Location: Fort Snelling State Park

Near the boat launch on Snelling Lake

Location: Edenbrook Conservation Area