Wild About Blue by Artist Art LaMay

Click here for info on our Conservation Framing  ~  Don't forget we can frame your items too ~  Why Use Black Mat?

Wild About Blue - Great Blue Heron

Wild About Blue - Great Blue Heron
by Art LaMay
27" by 42"

Framed Prints
Each double mat may vary from print to print according to which frame you choose. If you would like to
have a particular color of mat just call 1-302-875-2258 to place your order. The best matching color is used for
each individual print and is not always the color shown here.

Each print is framed using Conservation Acid Free & Lignin Free, Alkaline pH buffered matboard & backing.
In conservation framing, We use only Museum Quality materials and procedures that will have no adverse
effects on a piece of artwork and will protect the artwork from external damage.

 THE GREAT BLUE HERON


 Description of Species
         The Great Blue Heron is a large, graceful, dark gray bird having a white crown, cheeks and throat. It has a length between 97-137cm and a wingspan that can span 5 feet in length. They have a beautiful black stripe on the side of their crown that merges into a long occipital crest. The neck is gray with a violaceous tinge in the back and sides, and is striped black and white underneath. The back is blue-gray, the sides blackish, and the belly gray and white striped. The thigh feathers are often described as a distinctive chestnut. The irises are yellow, the lories dull green, and the legs greenish brown. Juveniles are somewhat darker than the adults and have an entirely dark crown, no crest, and more ventral striping. The bill is slaty with a yellowish lower mandible. The iris and lores are yellow as well. They have adapted a fascinating feature in that they have feathers that crumble and make a powder used to clear off slime from fish. By rubbing it’s head and neck feathers through the powder making feathers, the slime clumps can be extracted with one swipe of their claws. This most likely became an adaptation due to combating disease and infection form slime and other side products in the estuaries.

Behavior
     Flying:  When taking off and flying short distances, the Great Blue Heron often keeps its neck extended.  Its wingbeats are slow, 2.3-3.2 beats per second, but extremely powerful. (McAllister & Maxwell 1971).
 Feeding:  This particular heron feeds by day in most situations, but nocturnal foraging is very common, especially in tidal habitats.  It typically feeds Standing and by Walking Slowly, usually in water.  These behaviors account for over 90% of its foraging time.  Its eyes can shift focus to prey in front or below without moving its head, its long neck can be unleashed to strike forward and its bill works like finely tuned tweezers to snatch wriggling fish from the water.  Its long legs allow access to deep water but it often uses such behaviors as Hovering, Plunging, Jumping, and Swimming Feeding to forage in even deeper water than its leg length would allow.  On about two-thirds of all attempts, it captures fish.  Prey items include a wide range of insects, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.  The Great Blue Heron being a large bird can catch and use both small and large prey (Horn 1983): remarkably large play, such as stilts Himantopus, have been eaten, and even larger prey have been attacked before proving to big to swallow (Bayer 1979).  Western herons of this species are often feed on dry land, and on mammals.  Individuals, especially on islands such as Florida Keys and the Galapagos, frequent human habitations for scraps of food provided for them.  This can in some cases increase nesting success.

Breeding
    The displaying male usually occupies an old nest sites.  Mock (1976) described the displays used.  An Advertising call is seldom given, the bird instead advertising with a highly stereotyped Stretch display, which includes a lateral swaying in the head descent.  The Snap display on the other hand is highly variable but includes an audible mandible ‘clack’.  Other displays used include Wing Preen, Circle Flight, Twig Shake and Fluffed Neck.  Crest Raising is performed by both sexes throughout the breeding season.  Aggressive displays include the pairing, Contact and Non-contact Bill Clappering are common.  A gathering-ground dance has been described, but Bayer (in prep.) has shown that these are aggressive displays away from the colony site.  Great Blues nest either solitarily or in colonies at locations characterized by the presence of suitable trees, isolation from disturbance and available food supplies.  The number of individuals in a colony can vary from Year to year.
   
Nest, eggs and young
     The nest is a large platform of sticks over one meter across.  Sites are variable, often tall trees in the north of the range and mangrove bushes in the south, and if necessary artificial structures (Henny & Kurtz 1978).  Nest construction is quite fascinating in that the male will retrieve the sticks and present them to the female who is constructing the nest.  Often times it is just additions to existing nests from the previous year.  The eggs are pale blue, having a size range of 61.3-65.6 by 41.9-46.5mm ( Schonwetter 1976).  The clutch size varies from 3 to 7 eggs increasing form south to north.  The incubation period is about twenty-eight days.  The chicks fledge at about two months.  Nesting success depends on food supplies (Powell 1983) and can be two to three young per successful nest (Kelsall & Simpson 1979).  Most nesting loss is due to starvation due to competition within the nest, although predators such as eagles, raccoons, and bears attack nestlings.  Mortality rates are 69% in the first year, decreasing thereafter and with regional differences.

Habitat
   The Great Blue Heron is a bird of river and lake edges, as well as marshes and swamps.  It can feed on dry land but nests in trees, usually surrounded by water.  It also occurs in salt water, feeding along shores, in mangroves and on tidal mudflats. 

Natural History
     There are 60 species of herons recognized.  Most have been distinguished for many decades, but species limits of some herons are still being defined(Hancock'84).   The heron family, the Ardeide, is one of six families generally included in the next higher taxonomic category, the large-wading-bird order Ciconiiformes .  The families in relation include; the stork family- Ciciniidae. The ibis family- Threskiornithidae;  the two aberrant stork-like species- the Shoebill placed in the Balaenicipitidae and the Hammerkop placed in the Scopidae.  These all differ in many ways  from Herons.
  It is by no means certain that the order Ciconiiformes is a natural, monophyletic grouping of birds (Sibley & Ahlquest1972).  Some of these diverse families may actually be more closely related to the waterfowl order, to the shorebird order, or to the pelican order (JH, JK 84).  Alternatively, it is possible that what is presently recognized as the Ciconiiformes may be part of a larger group that includes representatives of currently identified Ciconiiformes. The herons appear to be the most morphologically distinctive group, an on that, it has the greatest likelihood of eventually being found to be unrelated to the rest.

Back to the Art LaMay Page | Continue Browsing
Home  | Glossary of Art and Gallery Terms
Join Our Newsletter List | About Wetlands and Conservation

DO You Have A Wildlife Web Site? If you do, you can become a W.W.A.G. Affiliate.