How Big Are Great Blue Herons? (Wingspan + Size)

Great Blue Heron (black heron) is a common and widespread North American water bird. Despite their long and thin stature, these birds prowl the shallow waters of rivers, lakes and coastal areas with stealth and grace.

The great blue heron is the largest member of the New World heron family and one of the tallest birds in the United States. So, how big is the Great Blue Heron?

Great blue herons stand about four feet tall and can weigh more than five pounds. Their impressive wingspan can reach six feet. Males are longer and heavier than females, which is a reliable way for scientists to tell sexes apart.

Great blue herons use their long legs to ford across wetlands and coastal habitats in search of food. Once they have found their target, these stealthy birds extend their long, spring-like necks to impale or grab unsuspecting prey.

Great blue herons are well-known throughout most of their range, although Florida birders may confuse them with the smaller great egrets.

There is still a lot to learn about the Great Blue Heron. Read on to learn more interesting facts and figures about its gigantic size!

Great Blue Heron walking with a large fish

great blue heron wingspan

The Great Blue Heron is a magnificent bird in flight. Before spreading their massive wings, they use their extra-long legs to spring into the air for take-off. They fly with a slow but powerful flapping of their wings, their legs trailing behind and their necks coiled back in an “S” shape.

So how wide is the wingspan of the Great Blue Heron?

Most adult great blue herons measure about 5.5 to 6.5 feet from wingtip to wingtip. However, the wingspan of the largest individuals can exceed two meters or 79 inches.

Males are longer and heavier, so they may have a larger wingspan than females.

The Great Blue Heron has an impressive wingspan that can measure over two meters

great blue heron weight

Great blue herons are tall, slender birds. Their hollow bones and light feathers also contribute to their surprisingly low weight. The average weight of unsexed birds from eastern North America was just over 4.9 pounds (2.23 kilograms), with marked differences between males and females.

Male great blue heron weight:

Men from one study in Western Canada weighed an average of five and a half pounds (2.48 kg).

Female great blue heron weight:

Women from the same study weighed an average of 4.6 pounds (2.11 kilograms).

Great Blue Heron eating a small crab in shallow water

How big is the Great Blue Heron compared to a human?

The Great Blue Heron is one of the few American birds with a human-sized body. So how do these birds stack up against you and me?

Great blue herons can stand up to four feet tall, about the average height of an eight-year-old. These birds may weigh less than a newborn, but their impressive wingspans are equal to or greater than the average adult height.

How big is a juvenile Great Blue Heron?

Great blue herons hatch from eggs that are 2.5 inches long by 1.8 inches wide (64 x 46 mm). When first hatched, these helpless chicks weigh less than two ounces.

Little herons still have a lot of growth to do before they reach fledgling, but they develop quickly with the care of both parents.

By two months of age, juvenile great blue herons have reached roughly their adult body weight. Most of the juveniles are out of the nest at this age, and the size difference between males and females is already obvious.

Adult Great Blue Heron with two chicks in a nest

How big was the largest great blue heron ever recorded?

Great blue herons vary widely across their wide range. Unlike many other North American birds, the largest examples of the species occur in the southeast, while the smallest blue herons breed in the northwest.

Data on the largest great blue heron ever recorded is hard to come by, but the largest specimen weighed five and a half pounds and had a wingspan of more than six and a half feet.

Why is the Great Blue Heron so big?

The large size of the great blue heron makes them unique among water birds. They can catch relatively large fish in environments where other piscivorous birds such as ospreys cannot hunt efficiently.

Their long legs suit their diet and hunting technique, enabling them to fish in water ranging from a few inches to two feet deep. They can also forage for small mammals in their grassland habitats in much the same way.

Their huge beaks are excellent spears for catching prey, and their large, wide wings keep them aloft and allow them to travel long distances when migrating.

Great blue herons also benefit from their large size, as they have relatively few natural predators. They do, however, fall prey to large birds of prey such as bald eagles, and perhaps carnivorous mammals such as bobcats and coyotes.

Closeup of Great Blue Heron fishing

Compared to other heron species, the great blue heron

There are twelve kinds Ardea Herons, two species of which are native to North America. The great blue heron is the third largest heron species, after the giant heron in Africa and the great-billed heron in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Read on to learn how the Great Blue Heron compares to other similar species.

similar species

The great egret is the only American heron of the same size as the great blue heron. These tall white waterbirds are widely distributed along the southern and east coasts of the United States, although they also venture along the west coast as far as Oregon and migrate to the interior of the United States to breed.

Great egrets are very slender birds, more than three feet long, with a four-and-a-half-foot wingspan and weighing more than two pounds. They may be confused with Florida’s all-white great blue heron, but are smaller and have black legs and feet.

Great blue herons are similar in appearance to Old World gray herons and South American cocoa herons. Great blue herons are the largest of the three, although their distributions rarely overlap, so you’re less likely to confuse them.

Great Blue Heron looking for fish by the sea

Is the Great Blue Heron the largest heron?

The great blue heron is the largest heron species in North America, but it’s not the largest in the world. That title belongs to the African giant heron, which grows much larger than any other bird in the heron family.

Goliath is only 5 inches longer than Great Blue, but weighs about 4 pounds!