Great Blue Heron waits for mate inspection at nestsite

Great Blue Heron, largest of the North American herons with long legs, a sinuous neck, and thick, daggerlike bill. Height 4 feet, wingspan 7 feet. Head, chest, and wing plumes give a shaggy appearance. Breeding birds gather in colonies or heronries or rookeries around remote bodies of water to build stick nests high off the ground. Male Great Blue Herons collect much of the nest material, gathering sticks from the ground and nearby shrubs and trees, and from unguarded and abandoned nests, and presenting them to the female. She weaves a platform and a saucer-shaped nest cup, lining it with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, mangrove leaves, or small twigs.

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