The Green Heron, also referred to as the Little Green Heron, is the smallest of the herons found in North America. Roughly the size of a crow, the Green Heron is quite colorful with dark green cap, back, and wings, chestnut neck and chest, and yellow feet. Their range encompasses most of the United States down through Mexico and Central America, and into the West Indies and Panama.

Green Herons can frequently be found along lakes, ponds, marshes, and streams feeding on a wide variety of food such as small reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, crayfish, earthworms, and small mammals. Green Herons feed mostly in the early morning and evening hours, standing motionless with their head and neck extended, waiting for prey to come within range, although they will sometimes dive into the water to catch a fish.

A secretive and solitary bird, Green Herons were the first bird to nest in Gatorland’s Breeding Marsh when it was completed in 1991. Making their nests of loose twigs and sticks in bushes near a body of water, they lay three to six greenish eggs a year. Both sexes help incubate the eggs, which hatch after 20 days.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 2:53 am and is filed under The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.