The Story
This is a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) that I photographed at Everglades National Park, Florida on June 10, 2017. It is a large wading bird common near open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America. It eats fish, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates and small mammals. It usually nests in colonies in trees close to lakes or other wetlands. The park is the most important breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America, and about 350 bird species live there.
I photographed it with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. IUCN lists the Great Blue Heron as Least Concern with an increasing population, and Congress approved the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000, a federal effort to restore and protect the South Florida ecosystem.
©2017 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) belongs to the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List