Green Heron - Definition and Overview

Green Heron
juvenile
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Ciconiiformes Family: Ardeidae Genus: Butorides Species: virescens
Binomial name
Butorides virescens (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) is a small heron. Some sources consider this bird and the Striated Heron or Mangrove Heron, Butorides striatus, of tropical Africa and Asia, to be a single species, the Green-backed Heron.

Adults have a blue back and wings, a chestnut neck with a white line down the front, a black cap and short yellow legs.

Their breeding habitat is small wetlands in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies and the Pacific coast of Canada and the United States. They nest in a platform of sticks often in shrubs or trees, sometimes on the ground, often near water. The female lays 3 to 5 eggs. Both parents incubate and feed the young birds.

They are migratory and winter in the southern United States through to northern South America. It is an extremely rare vagrant to western Europe.

These birds stand still at the water's edge and wait to ambush prey. They mainly eat small fish, frogs and aquatic insects. They sometimes drop food on the water's surface to attract fish.

adult Green Heron