The Story
I photographed this juvenile Green Heron (Butorides virescens) at the Fullerton Arboretum in Fullerton, California on August 28, 2016. It is one of the few birds known to use tools, dropping bait such as bread or insects on the water to lure fish. It mainly eats small fish, frogs and aquatic invertebrates. The arboretum’s paths wind through four main collections: Cultivated, Woodlands, Mediterranean and Desert. The Fullerton Arboretum covers 26 acres of the California State University, Fullerton campus and is the largest botanical garden in Orange County, with more than 4,000 plants.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. The arboretum works to save plant species that are extinct or close to extinction and shares its research across Orange County.
©2017 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) 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 2022), with the population trend listed as stable. IUCN does not yet assess the Green Heron separately; this is the assessment of Striated Heron (Butorides striata), which IUCN treats as including it. Source: IUCN Red List