Green Heron

Butorides virescens

Overview 1

A relatively small, dark, compact, crested wading bird, the Green Heron is a common species of wetland thickets throughout much of North America. Although shy and retiring, it is a familiar sight to those spending time out of doors. Careful observers can see it stalking slowly through the water, perched quietly atop a branch, or as a dark form flying with slow wingbeats through the gathering dusk. Its flight call, an assertive skeow, is a sound typifying temperate and tropical wetlands of the Americas. Some of this bird’s behaviors are especially well appreciated; flying away from human disturbance, for example, it often produces a scolding squawk and a stream of white defecation, giving it such vernacular monikers as “fly-up-the-creek,” “shite-polk,” and “chalk-line.”

Fuentes y Créditos

  1. (c) Joven, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA)

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