This largest of American herons wades in its wetland home using its yellow bill to catch large fish, frogs, muskrats, and even insects, reptiles, and water plants. Usually it has blue-gray plumage, but some individuals are completely white.
Herons begin life in a large twig nest, high in a tree.
They may share this nesting tree with other hatchlings, since great blue herons like to build community roost nests close together.