Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Herons are often quite tame at the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge. They search for prey along the refuge dikes. Often the herons freeze, waiting for movement in the grass. We have seen the herons swallowing frogs, mice, and even relatively large snakes. In the nearby ponds, they aggressively search for fish. Herons will eat almost anything they can capture. Records of their eating birds are in the literature (Vennesland and Butler 2020).