Grey Heron

Upperparts ash-grey, underparts whitish with black longitudinal streaks on the neck. Distinctive white head with a broad black eye-stripe ending in two long, black crest feathers. Breeding plumage includes elongated, loose ornamental feathers on the back and breast (aigrettes).

Similar to breeding plumage, but colors are generally duller, the black ornamental feathers on the back of the head are shorter or partially absent, and the reddish tints at the base of the bill are missing.

Overall greyer and less contrasty. The crown is grey instead of white, and the black eye-stripe is absent or only faintly indicated. The neck is a dingy grey with dark streaking.

Minimal. Males are on average slightly larger and heavier than females, but the plumage is identical in both sexes.

Large wading bird with a dagger-like bill. In flight, the neck is retracted in an S-shape (distinguishing feature from storks and cranes). Slow, heavy wing beats with deeply arched wings.

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) - smaller, darker, reddish-brown neck; Great Egret (Ardea alba) - pure white plumage.

Powerful, dagger-like, and pointed. Usually yellowish to yellow-brown; during the breeding season, the base can take on a reddish tint.

No true song; various croaking, cackling, and bill-clattering sounds at the nest for communication.

A very loud, harsh, and hoarse 'khraak', often uttered in flight or when disturbed.

Widely distributed across the Palearctic, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia. In Europe, found almost everywhere up to northern Norway.

Central European birds are mostly residents or short-distance migrants. Northern and Eastern European populations migrate to the Mediterranean or sub-Saharan Africa.

Partial migrant; migratory tendency increases towards the northeast. Many birds in Germany remain in the breeding area year-round during mild weather.

At locations near water with tall trees for colony formation. Prefers proximity to fish-rich standing and flowing waters, more rarely in reed beds.

Shallow water zones of lakes, ponds, rivers, and ditches. Also on meadows, pastures, and fields for hunting small mammals.

Large, messy-looking platform of sticks and twigs, often high in treetops. Lined with stalks or moss. Nests are often reused and expanded over several years.

Uniformly bluish-green, matte, oval. Dimensions approx. 60 x 43 mm.

Both parents incubate and feed the young. Food is transported in the crop and regurgitated in the nest for the chicks.

Opportunistic; primarily fish, but also amphibians, aquatic insects, small mammals (voles), young birds, and reptiles.

When water bodies are frozen, increasingly small mammals (voles) on fields. Otherwise, fish in ice-free sections of water.

Stand-and-wait: Often stands motionless for hours in shallow water or walks extremely slowly, then strikes lightning-fast with the bill.

Visual search; utilizes both ambush hunting and slow stalking.

Highly social breeder in colonies (heronries). However, foraging is mostly solitary and often territorially defended against conspecifics.

Outside the breeding season, found in groups at productive food sources or communal roosts. Often seen in loose flocks during flight.

Destruction of wetlands, disturbances at breeding colonies by recreational activities or forestry, illegal shooting at fish ponds, severe winters with long-lasting ice cover.

Largely stable to slightly increasing in Central Europe after populations recovered following the end of intensive persecution in the 20th century.

Protection and preservation of breeding colonies, restoration of rivers and floodplains, avoidance of disturbances during the breeding season, management of conflicts with inland fisheries.