The Grey Heron is a common heron that can be found throughout temperate Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. It is very similar to the North American Great Blue Heron, except this one is slightly smaller and has mostly grey plumage.
This bird feeds in shallow water, catching fish, frogs and insects.
The Grey Heron is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend is not known, but the population is not believed to be decreasing sufficiently rapidly to approach the thresholds under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
We have two new Birdorable coloring pages for anyone who loves to color! They are: the Great Blue Heron (which can also be colored as a Grey Heron) and the endangered Hyacinth Macaw, a beautiful parrot from central South America. Go to Coloring Pages to download these... Read more »
