They have been nesting at their current location near 2099 Beach Avenue since 2001 and have been documented nesting in various other locations in Stanley Park as far back as 1921. Herons are highly adaptable and may be found hunting in urban settings such as ponds of city parks.
The largest Pacific great blue heron colony in Metro Vancouver is in Tsawwassen near the ferry spit, where a rookery of 350 to 450 nests is located. Great Blue Herons inhabit sheltered, shallow bays and inlets, sloughs, marshes, wet meadows, shores of lakes, and rivers. The largest Pacific great blue heron colony in Metro Vancouver is in Tsawwassen near the ferry spit, where a rookery of 350 to 450 nests is located. … Today, sightings of these majestic birds in and around … Widespread and familiar (though often called "crane"), the largest heron in North America. The heron cam at Vancouver's Stanley Park is buzzing with activity as the park's majestic Pacific great blue herons have come back to nest for the summer.
Pacific Great Blue Heron Nesting Activities (1998 – 2015), Bowen Island, BC Page | 3 2 Pacific Great Blue Heron 2.1 Species Biology The Great Blue Heron is a very tall, long-legged wading bird found near watercourses, lakes, wetlands and coastal marine areas throughout BC. Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias fannini fannini subspecies Species information The Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, is the largest wading bird in North America, standing over 1 m in height. Their long necks pull back into an S-shape when in flight, and also when waiting for lunch to … Two subspecies occur: A. h. fannini west of the mountain ranges, and In British Columbia, check out the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve in Chilliwack. Adaptable and widespread, the Great Blue Heron is found in a wide variety of habitats. The Great Blue Heron has the widest distribution in Canada of all herons: it ranges from the Maritime provinces in the east across southern Canada to the Pacific Ocean, and north along the entire length of the British Columbia Pacific coast to Alaska’s Prince William Sound in the west (see map). Great Blue Heron breeding couples are monogamous and both parents participate in incubating the eggs.
Great Blue Herons, named for their bluish-gray color, are about 38-52 inches long with wingspans of up to seven feet. This subspecies lives year round on the Pacific Coast and mostly breeds in the Strait of Georgia.
Great Blue Herons in this region are considered a distinct subspecies (A.h. fannini) of the continental form (A.h. herodias) (Hancock and Elliot 1978, Payne 1979). To protect Great Blue Herons, we need to permanently conserve remaining forests (close to water), marshes and sloughs, eelgrass beds, and old field habitat (where prey like voles can be found). Within the FRDNWA, forests could be started in various locations to support future nesting for herons and other forest-dependent birds, such as pileated woodpeckers and the warbling vireo. The existence of herons is believed to date to the Cenozoic age, approximately 25 million years ago; North American fossil records of great blue herons date back 1.8 million years.