{"id":8905,"date":"2013-07-18T03:45:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T09:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8905"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:27:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:27:38","slug":"great-blue-heron-portraits-from-florida-and-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/18\/great-blue-heron-portraits-from-florida-and-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron Portraits from Florida and Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CallingCalling adult Great Blue Heron portrait – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn’t the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.\u00a0 The Great Blue Heron in the image above walked so close to me at Fort De Soto’s north beach that I felt the only option I had was to take head shot images. The heron was squawking at a Great Egret that seemed to be too close.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron portrait\u00a0– Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week on the auto tour route of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge I was able to photograph this Great Blue Heron that was close to the edge of the road and to get a head shot! The heron only stuck around for about 8 frames but I was happy.<\/p>\n

Even Great Blue Herons go through periods where they don’t look quite so handsome, notice how nice the plumage looks in the image of the heron from Florida taken March of 2009 and how raggedy the heron from Utah looks in the month of July? Oh well, I like both images.<\/p>\n

Two very different Great Blue Heron portraits from Florida and Utah.<\/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":"

In Florida I found it easy to get close up images of Great Blue Herons because quite often they are used to the presence of humans but here in Utah that isn’t the case and Great Blue Herons are sort of skittish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,25,704,166,2000,26],"tags":[4004,4117,4039,4072,4142,5229,5132,3987,4143,627,626,4094,4046,313,4095],"class_list":["post-8905","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-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-blue-herons","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-beach","tag-calling","tag-close-up","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-head-shot","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-marsh","tag-portrait","tag-wading-birds","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-florida-mia-mcpherson-8142.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2jD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":929,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/09\/26\/great-blue-herons\/","url_meta":{"origin":8905,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Herons","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Great Blue Herons are North America's largest heron and one of the three largest herons in the world.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron up close, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-up-close-mia-mcpherson-8094.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-up-close-mia-mcpherson-8094.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-up-close-mia-mcpherson-8094.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-up-close-mia-mcpherson-8094.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/08\/26\/great-blue-heron-up-close-and-not-so-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":8905,"position":1},"title":"Great Blue Heron Up Close And Not So Close","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One December morning in 2008 I was sitting in the sand at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach in Florida when a Great Blue Heron came up and perched on a driftwood stump that had washed up onto the shore.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron portrait at the north beach of Fort De Soto, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-6492.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55802,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/01\/25\/portraits-of-a-great-blue-heron-with-nesting-material\/","url_meta":{"origin":8905,"position":2},"title":"Portraits Of A Great Blue Heron With Nesting Material","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It felt amazing to have that Great Blue Heron gift us with its presence for those few seconds. You just never know what might happen when you are out looking for birds.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron with nesting materials and yellow flowers in the distance, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0243.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0243.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0243.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37685,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/31\/great-blue-herons-expelling-bile\/","url_meta":{"origin":8905,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Herons Expelling Bile? 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I wonder how often this occurs.","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":"Retching Great Blue Heron, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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