---
title: "Great Blue Heron"
description: "Ardea herodias — Birds. The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family (Ardeidae), common near shores of open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as Northwestern South America, the Caribbean, and the Galápagos Islands."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/great-blue-heron
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Great Blue Heron

> Ardea herodias — Birds. The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family (Ardeidae), common near shores of open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as Northwestern South America, the Caribbean, and the Galápagos Islands.

- Scientific name: *Ardea herodias*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lakes & rivers)
- iNaturalist observations: 462823
- Wikidata: [Q333796](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q333796)
- iNaturalist taxon: [4956](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/4956)

## Names

- en: Great Blue Heron
- de: Kanadareiher
- es: Garza morena
- fr: Grand Héron
- nl: Amerikaanse blauwe reiger
- pt: Garça-azul-grande
- pl: Czapla modra

## Countries with the most observations

US (357025), CA (63169), MX (19847), EC (1280), CR (1057), PA (428), BZ (289), HN (214), NI (184), CU (178), GT (155), CO (132)

## Summary

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family (Ardeidae), common near shores of open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as Northwestern South America, the Caribbean, and the Galápagos Islands. It is occasionally found in the Azores and is a rare vagrant to Europe. An all-white population found in South Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Caribbean islands, is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether these white birds are a color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_blue_heron

## Photo

![Great Blue Heron](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/great-blue-heron/medium.jpg)

Photo: Mark Connolly · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/113159870

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/great-blue-heron?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).