{"id":75235,"date":"2020-11-10T06:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T13:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=75235"},"modified":"2024-04-05T19:13:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T01:13:01","slug":"great-blue-herons-arent-really-blue-so-whats-up-with-their-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/11\/10\/great-blue-herons-arent-really-blue-so-whats-up-with-their-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Herons Aren’t Really Blue – So What’s Up With Their Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The name “Great Blue Heron” has always seemed off to me because these large herons are much more gray than they are blue. As I scroll through my images of Great Blue Herons<\/span><\/a> I find only a few photos where the slate-gray in their flight feathers would or could justify naming them “Great Blue Herons” and far more where their plumage is mostly gray or gray-brown.<\/p>\n

\"AdultGreat Blue Heron on a frigid morning in marsh habitat \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair in some light the plumage of Great Blue Herons can appear to look bluer than it actually is. For instance, when they are in a shadow or low light their plumage can look a bit on the blue side. Or in a fog.<\/p>\n

But if you search on line or scroll through images of this species on Facebook or other photos sharing sites where you can find images of Great Blue Herons with plumage in shades of deep royal blue, indigo blue, Mountain Bluebird blue or even purple-blue. I have seen photos on stock photos sites where the images of Great Blue Herons are such a vivid blue that I cringe because I know that isn’t their natural color but the person looking to license an image of a Great Blue Heron might not know their birds well enough to be aware that they don’t actually look like that in real life. Sometimes the colors in those images are a shocking misrepresentation of this species.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron flying over the frozen marsh at Bear River MBR \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 400, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

A more suitable name might have been “Great Gray Heron” because they are more gray than blue and they are North America’s largest heron but there is a slight wrinkle with that name because there is a similar looking Grey (gray) Heron<\/span><\/a> that can be found in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa and having two gray herons might be confusing. I’ve seen novice birders misidentify Great Blue Herons in the U.S. as Grey Herons many times because they aren’t aware of how rare a sighting of that species in North America would be. Wandering Grey Herons have made it to North America about a dozen times.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the “Great Heron” would be a better name for these mostly gray, large herons. The name “Great Blue Heron” does make me wonder what’s up with their name.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The name “Great Blue Heron” has always seemed off to me because these large herons are much more gray than they are blue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,166,26],"tags":[4117,164,8054,4052,4122,6926,3987,683,627,626,4064,4094,5324,4069,4156,4018,4050,313,3996,4095,373],"class_list":["post-75235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-bird-identification-2","tag-bird-names","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-frozen","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-habitat-2","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-ice","tag-marsh","tag-marsh-habitat","tag-mountains","tag-resting","tag-sky","tag-snow","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-mia-mcpherson-3990.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jzt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62505,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/08\/photographing-great-blue-herons-on-the-frozen-marshes-of-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":75235,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Great Blue Herons On The Frozen Marshes Of Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I spent time focusing on photographing Great Blue Herons on the frozen marshes of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron and the frozen marsh at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-blue-heron-immature-flight-mountains-mia-mcpherson-1398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-blue-heron-immature-flight-mountains-mia-mcpherson-1398.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-blue-heron-immature-flight-mountains-mia-mcpherson-1398.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/great-blue-heron-immature-flight-mountains-mia-mcpherson-1398.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":136037,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/10\/29\/great-blue-heron-on-a-gray-autumn-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":75235,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Heron On A Gray Autumn Day","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this Great Blue Heron two days ago when the autumn sky was gray with clouds on Sally Jones Lake at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Great Blue Heron on a gray autumn day, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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