Great blue heron: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the great blue heron lives – recorded in 35 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Ardea herodias
Group	Herons, storks, cranes & flamingos
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	35 countries
Continents	Europe, North America, South America
Mass	2.48 kg (male organism, adult weight); 2.11 kg (female organism, adult weight)
Diet (main food)	fish
Class	Bird
Order	Pelecaniformes
Family	Ardeidae

Where does the great blue heron live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the great blue heron in 35 countries and territories across Europe, North America and South America. Wikidata gives its range as: Brazil, South America.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a great blue heron?

Wikidata records the following for the great blue heron: mass 2.48 kg (male organism, adult weight); 2.11 kg (female organism, adult weight).

What does a great blue heron eat?

Wikidata lists the main food source of the great blue heron as: fish.

Is the great blue heron endangered?

The great blue heron’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the great blue heron?

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the family Ardeidae, genus Ardea. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the great blue heron

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family (Ardeidae), common near shores of open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as Northwestern South America, the Caribbean, and the Galápagos Islands. It is occasionally found in the Azores and is a rare vagrant to Europe. An all-white population found in South Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Caribbean islands, is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether these white birds are a color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Great blue heron (revision 1380682874), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q333796 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).