The Green Heron is a small, crouched, secretive heron that hunts from the water's edge, often overlooked until it flushes with a sharp "skeow" and a flash of dark wings. Compact and hunched, it shows a rich chestnut neck, a dark iridescent green-black back, and bright orange legs, and it can raise a shaggy crest when alarmed. Unlike its tall wading relatives it usually stays low, perched on a branch or root just above the water, neck drawn in and body still.
This heron is one of the very few birds known to use tools: it will drop a feather, insect, twig, or even a bit of bread onto the water's surface as bait, then seize the small fish drawn to it. Green Herons breed along wooded ponds, streams, and quiet shorelines throughout Michigan from spring into fall, nesting in trees and shrubs near water. Patient and cryptic, they reward a quiet watcher willing to scan the shady margins where they hunt.
Hunts small fish above all, ambushing them from a low perch or the shoreline, and also takes aquatic insects, frogs, crayfish, and other small prey. It is one of the few birds that fishes with bait, dropping objects on the water to lure fish within striking range.
Yes. Green Herons are among a small number of tool-using birds, dropping feathers, insects, twigs, or scraps onto the water to attract small fish, then snatching them when they come to investigate.
The Green Heron hunts by staying compact and still, neck pulled in against its body, so it can wait motionless above the water and strike quickly. When it stretches out its neck it is longer than it first appears.
Along the shaded, brushy edges of ponds, streams, and marshes, often perched low on a branch or root over the water. Listen for a sharp "skeow" call as it flushes.
Juveniles are browner with heavy streaking down the neck and breast and lack the adult's rich chestnut and glossy green tones. They also show pale wing-covert spots that wear away over their first year.
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