Meet Your Neighbors: Great Blue Herons

Meet Your Neighbors: New York’s Natural World

In this series, we connect policy to nature – highlighting native New York species, what we have in common with them, and the roles they play in NYLCV’s policy agenda. Here in Part 3, we meet New York’s black bears.

By Georgia Good

It’s an awesome sight: an iconic silhouette, gray-blue, motionless on the shoreline. Then, in an instant, she’s in the air, skimming the shore with deep, strong strokes of massive wings, neck tucked, long legs trailing behind. She has crossed from water to sky.

Who are great blue herons? 

The great blue heron is certainly great: they’re the biggest herons in North America, standing up to 4.5 feet tall with a 6.5 foot wingspan – that’s greater than the height of most people. But they weigh just a fraction of what we weigh: like all birds, they have hollow bones, so are only 5-6 pounds. Great blue herons are graceful predators and strong fliers. With humans, they’re generally shy. But if you’re a fish or small mammal, watch out: unlike many New Yorkers, these birds have great patience, hunting by standing very still, waiting – then, with their strong necks and long, dagger-like bills made for grasping or impaling prey, they strike at lightning speed. 

Great blue herons live throughout New York State, at the edges where land and water meet – from marshes, beaches and estuaries, to rivers, lakes and ponds. The Indigenous Lenape word for “heron” is the same as the Lenape word “bridge” – the birds journey from shore to shore, but also, in myth, between worlds. To nest, great blue herons build platforms of sticks and twigs, sometimes in colonies – often in trees, but also on the ground, in bushes, and in human-made structures. You could build one yourself, using the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s nest platform plan. 

The great(est) blue heron’s in the greatest city in the world, too: according to the NYC Bird Alliance, a pair has nested in Staten Island’s Clove Lakes Park since 2013. In 2022, more were seen nesting on Mill Rock, an island in the East River. They remind us that New York is a watery city. And they nest around Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx, as well as on Long Island’s coasts. 

Like many of our state’s birds, great blue herons breed here in the summer (March to August). Then, some head south for the winter – but many more stay year-round, toughing it out with the rest of us (we can’t all head to the tropics when it gets cold!). 

And if you’re wondering how these elegant birds stay clean in such damp, fishy places, great blue herons have it covered. They have specialized “powder down” feathers on their chest, which they break down into a fine powder – then, using a fringed claw on their middle toes as a comb, they use the powder to remove and protect against fish slime and other oils, as they preen themselves. Another good use of their long, contorting necks. 

What do great blue herons and climate resilience have in common? 

Despite their versatility and resilience, great blue herons face a problem – and we face it, too. Like many wading birds, they face habitat loss from building development and sea level rise. In the past few decades, for example, we’ve transformed the Long Island shore – and these birds, who have nested on New York’s coast for thousands of years, have had little time to adapt. 

These changes have made us vulnerable, too. With rising sea levels, intensifying storms, flooding and erosion, New York’s climate risks are especially felt near the coasts. Climate adaptation strategies should prioritize nature-based solutions. In our 2025 Long Island Agenda, we call for local municipalities to implement natural buffers along its coasts, including beaches and dunes, restored and protected wetlands, eel grass fields, oyster reefs, and other living shoreline approaches. In our 2026 New York State Agenda, we argue that flood management projects should incorporate green or nature-based infrastructure before considering hardened shoreline alternatives, which deteriorate over time, can increase nearby erosion by reflecting wave energy, and remove habitat for species like herons. This aligns with the State Environmental Conservation Law amendment (S.5186-A/A.5221-A), which requires the New York Department of Conservation (DEC) to authorize and encourage the use of nature-based solutions in shoreline management (see the DEC’s Living Shoreline Techniques in the Marine District of New York State to learn more). 

Living shorelines restore habitats where wildlife can thrive – through marsh grasses, oyster reefs, and native upland plantings. Alongside great blue herons, these New Yorkers include: other birds like osprey, terns, sandpipers and songbirds; shellfish; pollinating insects like bees and butterflies; Atlantic blue crabs and horseshoe crabs; and hardy forage fish, like Atlantic silverside and killifish. As top predators, herons regulate these ecosystems, keeping them healthy. In turn, these systems help us – stabilizing shorelines, and protecting against floods and storms (vegetation, for example, anchors soil in place to reduce erosion). Better for herons, and better for us. 

Another risk for great blue herons: contaminated water. New York has a water quality problem, and herons’ health, like ours, is impacted by pollutants in our waterways. New York State is strengthening the Clean Water Act, with Governor Kathy Hochul recently announcing another $3.75 billion for water infrastructure over the next five years. NYLCV (NYLCVEF’s sister organization) is calling on the State Senate and Assembly to include this investment in their One House Budgets and in the final FY27 Budget, to help clean up waterways for all species, and ensure clean, affordable drinking water for all of us. 

Flying forward 

To protect our health, communities and planet, we must work together across species lines. An example: we started “Meet Your Neighbors” with North American beavers. Great blue herons in the northeastern US have benefited from beavers’ recovery – the mammals have created patchworks of meadows and swamps well-suited to the birds’ hunting and nesting. Humans are equally embedded in these ecological webs of shared reciprocity and risk. Like every other kind of New Yorker, we are relied on by – just as we rely on – other species to survive. 

Emily Dickinson once wrote that “hope is the thing with feathers”. In many ancient and Indigenous cultures, great blue herons embody wisdom. As we keep fighting for climate action and resilience, those values – and the birds that grace our skies and shores – are worth keeping in mind. 

Georgia Good is the Communications Fellow at the New York League of Conservation Voters. She’s a Steinhardt Graduate Scholar in Environmental Conservation Education at NYU, with a focus on climate communications and advocacy. She’s had comms roles at Climate Arc, the Centre for Climate Engagement, University of Cambridge, and Mercy Corps, and she has a BA in English from UCL, UK.