Wild Florida Photo - Butorides virescens

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Butorides virescens

GREEN HERON

Florida native

 

This resident of Florida can often be seen - although not always easily - crouching on a log, low branch or rock and leaning over the water waiting for small fish to come by. They have been known to drop insects, earthworms, twigs, feathers or other objects into the water as bait to attract fish.
The range includes the eastern United States, north into Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, plus through the southwest and up the Pacific coast states into British Columbia. The range extends south through Mexico, Central America and northwest South America.
Green herons are small and stocky with least bitterns being the only smaller member of the Ardeidae family in North America. Typically 41-46 cm (16-18 in.) long with a wingspan of 64-68 cm (just over 2 feet). Adult back and wings are dark slatey green, the head has a black cap and the neck is chestnut. They have a straight, relatively long bill and yellow legs that are bright orange in breeding males. Immatures are brownish with a pale neck streaked with dark brown and yellow-green legs.

 
Butorides virescens is a member of the Ardeidae - Herons & Bitterns family.
 

Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida

  Peter Alden
 An easy-to-use field guide for identifying 1,000 of the state's wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, mosses, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, butterflies, mammals, and much more.

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A complete overview of Florida's natural history, covering geology, wildlife habitats, ecology, fossils, rocks and minerals, clouds and weather patterns and night sky. An extensive sampling of the area's best parks, preserves, beaches, forests, islands, and wildlife sanctuaries, with detailed descriptions and visitor information for 50 sites and notes on dozens of others. The guide is packed with visual information. The 1,500 full-color images include more than 1,300 photographs, 14 maps, and 16 night-sky charts, as well as 150 drawings explaining everything from geological processes to the basic features of different plants and animals. For everyone who lives or spends time in Florida, there can be no finer guide to the area's natural surroundings than the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida.








For more information on this species, visit the following link:
Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds page for this species

Date record last modified:
May 26, 2009