Green Heron
Butorides virescens
Green Heron · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
A Green Heron at the water's edge in the Everglades in February, crow-sized and easy to overlook next to the Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons sharing the same water. It is a small heron of wooded ponds and mangrove creeks across the eastern United States, hunting from cover rather than the open.
The dark greenish-black cap and back, chestnut neck, and yellow-orange legs are diagnostic; the bill's two-tone colouring, dark above and yellow below, is typical of a bird not yet in full breeding condition. Green Herons are one of relatively few bird species known to use tools, dropping bait such as insects or bread onto the water's surface to lure fish within striking range.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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