Heron Pictures
They are easily recognized as the often large, long-billed, long necked wading birds that live on the edge of coastal areas, lakes, rivers and wetlands.
World wide the Ardenidae family consists of sixty-five species, divided into nineteen different genera. They range in size from one foot to four and one-half feet tall, with equally long wing spans.
A dozen species, all listed in the box on the right, live in United States.
All dozen species can be found along the Southeast Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. The West Coast of the United States has less breath of heron species present, however at least eleven of the twelve species have been recorded lately.
The seven most common West Coast heron species are the American Bittern, Black-crowned Night Heron, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret and the Cattle Egret.
Cattle Egrets are non-native birds, introduced in the United States in 1941. They have proved to be very adaptable, and in seven decades they have found their way as far north as Oregon.
Three additional egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tricolor Herons and Reddish Egrets, all members of the Genus Egretta, also known as plumed egrets occasionally migrate a bit north from their traditional Mexican roosts to California coastal locations.
As a group egrets can be considered herons with white feathers. Many egret species were known as fashion birds and were hunted close to extinction at the turn of the nineteenth century. Today all aggregate Ardeidae populations are considered stable, although regionally some species such as the Least Bittern, are considered endangered.
© 2009. Patricia A. Michaels.