Green herons are solitary birds and quite secretive. If I sit quietly in the morning along the river out at Mt. Pisgah, I might be fortunate enough to see one. Their coloration and pattern easily conceal them as they hunt in the shallow waters along the vegetation of the river’s edge. They can be seen standing motionless or slowly walking along the bank as they look for food. When catching prey, they will quickly lunge forward darting their head into the water with their stout, pointy bill.
Their diet mostly consists of eating small fish. Also on the menu are insects, spiders, crustaceans, snails, amphibians, reptiles, and rodents.
Amazingly, green herons will sometimes drop a feather or small twig on surface of water as bait to lure fish. I would love to see them do this.
I was lucky to get a photo of this one as it investigated the shallow water of this bar of cobblestones.
