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How to Identify it:  3-4 foot tall bird with long neck, gray body with large yellow bill

This is a common and unmistakable resident of wetlands, lake shores, streamsides, marine bays and estuaries. They feed on fish, amphibians and small mammals.  The are one of the largest birds in our area, standing as much as 4 feet tall and they appear almost prehistoric when they fly, with huge wings and slow wingbeats. These large birds sometimes awkwardly perch in trees, or even on utility poles although most of the time they are at the waters edge, slowly stalking prey in the shallows.  While hunting a heron will stand motionless for several minutes, then slowly bend its neck towards the water. Suddenly it will strike its long sharp bill into the water in a blur of motion.  During winter months, when shallow waters are frozen this large bird can be found in fields and meadows hunting voles and mice.  They manage to swallow prey that seems impossibly large, including large bullfrogs and even rats and can spend several minutes attempting to swallow a too large fish before abandoning the task.

During the summer months some adults fly into high mountain lakes to feed on fish and amphibians.

They nest in colonies usually with a dozen or more nests clustered together, often in a protected clump of cottonwoods. The bulky stick nests are built in February and are often littered below with a pungent assortment of fish remains and droppings.  Herons can be found on nests by mid-March and young are born in late April, and leave the nest by the end of June. Colonies have been declining around the Northwest for many years due to development and more recently, predation by bald eagles which take the young, often destroying the whole nest in the process.

How to Identify it: Small heron with large yellow eye, dark  cap and brown striped neck and breast.

This small uncommon heron is found in wetlands, streamsides and lakeshores with heavy brush and cover. They arrive in late March and some stick around to nest before joining the migration south in October and November.  They are a secretive and hard to find bird, often perching on a low branch or on a waterside log, patiently waiting until a fish appear, at which time they strike in a blur of motion. 

Nests are cup of sticks in a willow or other small tree clump, sometimes directly over but always close to water. They are not common although appear to be expanding in numbers since the 1970's.
 

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How to Identify it: Medium sized heron with completely striped body

This is a bird of cattail marches and dense wetland vegetation. Its striped body blends in perfectly with the background reeds and when spooked will even hold its bill in the air to align with the background shapes.  It is common  in appropriate habitat but not often seen. When it flies it stays low to the ground and its greenish legs trail behind it.  Like all herons, it forages along the edges of wetlands catching frogs, fish and insects, also taking a few small mammals.  The Bittern is resident in lowland coastal areas that seldom freeze, and migrants arrive in mid March and stay the summer, nesting in dense vegetation, then migrating south again in October.  During mid April to mid May in early morning and evening it gives its odd and mysterious call, a deep metallic sound "gloonk chuck" which sounds  like some kind of mechanical pump.

Nests are built on the ground and are well hidden and made of wetland vegetation lined with grasses.  Eggs are laid in Late May through June and the young often walk away from the nest at the age of two weeks, staying nearby and fed by the female for another couple of weeks.