Bill has small serrations along the inner edges that angle towards the back of the mouth to help keep the prey from easily escaping. Their long necks and bills enable this bird to capture prey over 4 feet away. Nest is a platform-type stick nest about 18 inches to 4 feet across, lined with twigs and leaves. Nests are often reused from year to year, and adults will repair nests with green needles. Both sexes build the nest, nests are usually in colonies.
Eggs are pale blue-green to pale olive.
They rely on both parents for regurgitated food, usually consisting mainly of fish. Chicks are fledged out at 56 - 60 days. Most chicks abandon the nest after 64 - 90 days. Although the adults are not uncommon at all, confirmed sightings of young, nest sites, breeding or nesting behaviors are uncommon. Great Blue Herons can live to be over 20 years old and have been clocked flying at speeds in excess of 35 mph.