Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Spring Brings New Bird Songs
House Finch perched on branch, looking over its shoulder showing red-colored head and throat
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Green Heron

A most clever bird!
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Green Heron
© Gregg Thompson

The Green Heron forages on the banks of small bodies of fresh water. Relying on its plumage for camouflage, it perches motionless — body horizontal and stretched forward — waiting for small fish to come close. This heron may use "bait" while hunting for fish. It drops a feather, a live insect, or a twig on the water's surface. Then it hunkers down and waits for unsuspecting prey to venture within reach. Clever heron! Be sure to watch videos of Green Herons fishing (below).

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®

Green Heron

Written by Frances Wood

This is BirdNote!

[Great Blue Heron vocalizations]

The heron you’re most likely to see in North America is the tall Great Blue Heron. But this stately bird has a much smaller and more secretive relative — the Green Heron.

[Green Heron vocalizations]

This chunky, short-legged heron is about a foot and a half long, maybe about a third of the size of its larger cousin. And it’s a deep forest-green color, with a chestnut-colored neck.

[Green Heron vocalizations]

The Green Heron forages for fish and small amphibians on the banks of small bodies of fresh water, using its plumage to camouflage itself amid the trees and shrubs. It perches, body horizontal and stretched forward over the water, still as a statue, waiting for small fish to come close.

[Sounds of pond and vocalizations]

Now, here’s the really cool part. This heron sometimes uses “bait” to lure its prey. It will break twigs into pieces small enough to make convincing lures and then cleverly drop them onto the water’s surface. Sometimes, instead of a stick, the heron will use a feather or even a live insect. Then the bird hunkers down and waits for an unsuspecting fish to swim close.

[Sounds of water and vocalizations]

The Great Blue Heron may be easier to see, but be sure to keep an eye out for the small — and clever — Green Heron.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

###
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Narrator: Michael Stein
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Ambient [107437] recorded by W.L. Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2019 BirdNote   September 2013 / 2015 / 2019

ID# 091107GRHEKPLU       GRHE-01c
 

Frances Wood
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Gregg Thompson
Photographer
Support More Shows Like This
Tagswetland

Related Resources

Video of a Green Heron fishingVideo of Green Heron fishing -- with baitGreen Heron – More at the Audubon Guide to North American BirdsGreen Heron - More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Green Heron (Butorides virescens)

Butorides virescens

Sights & Sounds

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy