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Life-Size Blue Heron by Ken White for Big Sky Carvers

The Blue Heron is the largest and most widspread heron in North America.
The Great Blue Heron can be found along the ocean shore or the edge of inland bodies of water.
Handcarved by artist, Ken White for Big Sky Carvers.

9" Long x 7" Wide x 25.5" high.

$388.88

Some Facts About The Blue Heron:

The Great Blue heron lives for about 25 years. The bird mostly nests in flocks, but hunts for food alone. The great blue heron typically breeds during the months of March - May in its northern range and November through April in the southern hemisphere. Each year, the herons find a new nest made of loose masses of sticks in trees or bushes.

When the Great Blue Heron is ready to mate, its beak and legs turn a very deep pink or red. The male sits on a branch and thrusts his beak at the female. If the female takes interest in the male, she will fly into the sky, quickly followed by the male. They continue to raise their feathers and lower their heads as a signal that they are ready to mate. Once this "courtship dance" has been done, the two fly south to build a nest or reuse one that they had built the previous year. If it is building a new nest, the male flies away and makes many trips gathering twigs, leaves, moss, pine needles, and branches to bring back to the female. The female then starts building the nest high in the tree and far from most of its predators. Once the nest is finished, the mother tramples the nest to make it stronger and to make the walls of the nest high enough to prevent a chick from falling out. The female continues to line the inside of the nest with vegetation to cushion the bottom and to make it more comfortable. The nests do look weak, however they can "withstand gale force winds". Since the process of building a nest is so time consuming and difficult, the Great Blue Heron usually tries to repair and reuse its old nest. It builds a new nest only if the old nest has fallen out of the tree or if it has been destroyed. An old nest can be identified by its size because the heron adds on to it each year.

The Great Blue Heron lays three to seven greenish-blue eggs between the months of July and August. The incubation period before the egg hatches is about 4 weeks with both male and female taking turns at incubating the eggs. The young are born with their eyes open. After they have hatched, the birds are very noisy and are big enough to wander around the nest. The baby birds poke around at many things, which is important to their survival since they must develop the hunting ability.

At first the chicks are totally dependent on their parents for food. The parents bring back food in their stomachs and regurgitate it to feed their young. The chicks' diet is almost all fish, and to get fed and survive they have to fight their siblings for the first spot in line for food. The newborns require one quarter of their body weight in food every day! Between two and three months of age the fledglings are ready to fly. They fly with their necks down near their bodies in an S-curve. This makes them more aerodynamic while flying. Their legs dangle behind them. The fledglings leave the nest in 5-30 more days and mature sexually in 2 years. The average life span of a Great Blue Heron is about fifteen years.

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