GREY HERON

 GREY HERON


The Grey Heron is a long-legged predatory wading bird of the Heron family, Ardeidae, native of temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa.

The Grey Heron is a large bird measuring vertically up to 39 inches tall and sizing horizontally up 40 inches with a wingspan of about 77 inches wingspan. The body weight can range from 1.5 kg to 3 kg. The plumage is largely ash-grey above and greyish-white below with some black on the flanks. Adults generally have their head and neck coloured white with a broad black supercilium that terminates in the slender, dangling crest and bluish-black streaks on the front of the neck. The scapular feathers are elongated and the feathers at the base of the neck are also somewhat elongated. Immature birds of this species lack the dark stripe on the head and are generally dull in appearance than adults with a grey head and neck and a small, dark grey crest. The pinkish-yellow beak is long, straight and powerful and is brighter in colour in breeding adults. The iris is yellow and the legs are brown and very long.

Herons are of a fairly ancient lineage and first appeared in the fossil record in the Paleogene period. About seven million years ago birds closely resembling modern forms and attributable to modern genera had appeared.

These birds breed colonially in spring usually building their nests high in trees. A clutch of usually three to five bluish-green eggs is laid. Both the male and female birds incubate the eggs for around 25 days and then together feed the chicks which fledge when they are 7 to 8 weeks old. Many juveniles do not survive their first winter, but if they do, they live for about 5 years.

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