Grey heron

, India '' skeletons Grey herons belong to the subfamily Ardeinae, along with the majority of extant species, which are known as the "typical herons". The grey heron was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the cattle egret and the great egret in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea cinerea. The scientific name comes from the Latin ardea meaning "heron" and cinereus meaning "ash-grey" or "ash-coloured". Four subspecies are recognised: The grey heron sometimes hybridises with the great egret (Ardea alba), the little egret (Egretta garzetta), the great blue heron and the purple heron (Ardea purpurea). The Australian white-faced heron is often incorrectly called a grey heron. In Ireland, the grey heron is often colloquially called a "crane". == Description ==

in Fukuoka, Japan The grey heron is a large bird, standing up to tall and measuring long with a wingspan. The body weight can range from . The plumage is largely ashy-grey above, and greyish-white below, with some black on the flanks. Adults have a white head and neck with a broad black supercilium that terminates in the slender, dangling crest, and bluish-black streaks on the front of the neck. The scapular feathers and the feathers at the base of the neck are somewhat elongated. In immature birds the adult's black stripe on the head is grey, and the white face paler grey; they are generally duller in appearance than adults, with only a small, dark grey crest. The pinkish-yellow beak is long, straight, and powerful, and is brighter colour in breeding adults. The iris is yellow and the legs are brown and very long. The main call is a loud croaking "fraaank", but a variety of guttural and raucous noises are heard at the breeding colony. The male uses an advertisement call to encourage a female to join him at the nest, and both sexes use various greeting calls after a pair bond has been established. A loud, harsh "schaah" is used by the male in driving other birds from the vicinity of the nest and a soft "gogogo" expresses anxiety, as when a predator is nearby or a human walks past the colony. The chicks utter loud chattering or ticking noises. == Distribution and habitat ==

park, 2021 The grey heron has an extensive range throughout most of the Palearctic realm. The range of the nominate subspecies A. c. cinerea extends to 70° N in Norway and 66°N in Sweden, but its northerly limit is around 60°N across the rest of Europe and Asia, as far eastwards as the Ural Mountains. To the south, its range extends to northern Spain, France, central Italy, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Iraq, Iran, India, The Maldives and Myanmar (Burma). It is also present in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and many of the Mediterranean Islands. It is replaced by A. c. jouyi in eastern Siberia, Mongolia, eastern China, Hainan, Japan, and Taiwan. In Madagascar and the Aldabra Islands, the subspecies A. c. firasa is found, while the subspecies A. c. monicae is restricted to Mauritania and offshore islands. Over much of its range, the grey heron is resident, but birds from the more northerly parts of Europe migrate southwards, some remaining in Central and Southern Europe, others travelling on to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. In South America, the majority of the sightings come from Brazil, especially in Fernando de Noronha. There is also an old record from Colombia. Within its range, the grey heron can be found anywhere with suitable watery habitat that can supply its food. The water body must be either shallow enough, or have a shelving margin in it, so that it can wade. Although most common in the lowlands, it also occurs in mountain tarns, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, marshes, ponds, ditches, flooded areas, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and the sea shore. It sometimes forages away from water in pasture, and it has been recorded in desert areas, hunting for beetles and lizards. Breeding colonies are usually near feeding areas, but exceptionally may be up to away, and birds sometimes forage as much as from the nesting site. == Behaviour ==

The grey heron has a slow flight, with its long neck retracted in an S-shape. This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes, and spoonbills, which extend their necks. Fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and insects are caught in shallow water with the heron's long bill. It has also been observed catching and killing juvenile birds such as ducklings, and occasionally takes birds up to the size of a water rail or white-throated rail. Small mammals such as water voles, rats, stoats and young rabbits are additionally caught. Recently, the grey heron has been observed to use the 'stress and wash' technique which is believed to make great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) and smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris) more palatable by flushing their skin free of toxins before consumption. Prey items vary in size from 1 cm-long fish and invertebrates, weighing less than 1g, to 30 cm-long carps and 57cm eels. While chicks tend to have smaller prey, individual prey caught by fully-grown Grey Herons commonly exceed 100g in weight and occasionally exceed 500g. One paper reports that an adult heron managed to catch and swallow sea trout weighing 680g. It may stand motionless in the shallows, or on a rock or sandbank beside the water, waiting for prey to come within striking distance. Alternatively, it moves slowly and stealthily through the water with its body less upright than when at rest and its neck curved in an "S". It is then able to straighten its neck and strike with its bill very quickly. They hunt as usual, but also visit street markets and snack bars. Some individuals make use of people feeding them at their homes or share the catch of recreational fishermen. Similar behaviour on a smaller scale has been reported in Ireland. Herons have been observed visiting water enclosures in zoos, such as spaces for penguins, otters, pelicans, and seals, and taking food meant for the animals on display. Harm caused by grey herons In a variety of sources, one can find a common statement that grey herons, by eating large quantities of fish, is a significant pest of fisheries, causing damage to the population of valuable fish both in natural reservoirs and in ponds intended for the cultivation of cultivated fish species. For example, in the 1970s, major Soviet experts considered the grey heron to be a harmful species, for example, for fish breeding reservoirs in Ukraine. In particular, it was established that in Ukraine and in general in the southern regions of the USSR, carp and mullet suffered from heron farms (there, in addition, the heron caught fish in the dark, which made it difficult to fight it). It was undoubtedly noted that grey herons, especially in the post-nesting period, when forage migrations begin, gather in significant numbers on fish ponds and then eat many juveniles of cultivated fish species. In the Kuban delta, the share of valuable, specially cultivated species was significant in the hunting of the grey heron, of which 84% were carp, 12% were white carp, and 4% were bighead carp. According to studies at fish ponds in Upper Lusatia in Germany, the grey heron does cause significant damage to fisheries, but the damage caused by eating valuable fish species is balanced by the fact that it eats a large number of fish affected by ligulosis. The undoubted benefit of the heron is also expressed in the fact that it eats a lot of harmful insects. However, in some places, grey herons can serve as a breeding ground for the so-called ink sickness, or postodiplostomosis, a dangerous disease of young cyprinids. In addition, large colonies of grey herons can have a significant impact on soil biogeochemistry and vegetation. For example, a heron colony in one study site located near the southern edge of the Republic of Tatarstan on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Volga, the largest and longest river in Europe, and its largest tributary, the Kama, on the banks of the smaller river Myosha (a tributary of the Kama); after settling around 2006, it expanded for 15 years, leading to the intensive deposition of nutrients with faeces, food remains and feathers thereby considerably altering the local soil biogeochemistry. Thus, lower pH levels around 4.5, 10- and 2-fold higher concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen, as well as 1.2-fold discrepancies in K, Li, Mn, Zn and Co, respectively, compared to the surrounding control forest area could be observed. == Predators and parasites ==

Being large birds with powerful beaks, grey herons have few predators as adults, but white-tailed eagles, golden eagles and more rarely Eurasian goshawks will take them as prey. The eggs and young are more vulnerable; the adult birds do not usually leave the nest unattended, but may be lured away by marauding crows or kites. A dead grey heron found in the Pyrenees is thought to have been killed by an otter. The bird may have been weakened by harsh winter weather causing scarcity of its prey. A study performed by Sitko and Heneberg in the Czech Republic between 1962 and 2013 suggested that Central European grey herons host 29 species of parasitic worms. The dominant species consisted of Apharyngostrigea cornu (67% prevalence), Posthodiplostomum cuticola (41% prevalence), Echinochasmus beleocephalus (39% prevalence), Uroproctepisthmium bursicola (36% prevalence), Neogryporhynchus cheilancristrotus (31% prevalence), Desmidocercella numidica (29% prevalence), and Bilharziella polonica (5% prevalence). Juvenile grey herons were shown to host fewer species, but the intensity of infection was higher in the juveniles than in the adult herons. Of the digenean flatworms found in Central European grey herons, 52% of the species likely infected their definitive hosts outside Central Europe itself, in the premigratory, migratory, or wintering quarters, despite the fact that a substantial proportion of grey herons do not migrate to the south. ==In human culture==

postal stamp, 1959 Bennu, an ancient Egyptian deity associated with the sun, creation, and rebirth, was depicted as a heron in New Kingdom artwork. In ancient Rome, the heron was a bird of divination that gave an augury (sign of a coming event) by its call, like the raven, stork, and owl. During the Middle Ages in the British Isles, herons were associated with chivalry and commonly featured on coats of arms, as their stoic stance while fishing came to be associated with virtues such as patience, contemplation and nobility. Roast heron was once a specially prized dish in Britain for special occasions such as state banquets. For the appointment of George Neville as Archbishop of York in 1465, 400 herons were served to the guests. Young birds were still being shot and eaten in Romney Marsh in 1896. Two grey herons feature in a stained-glass window of the church in Selborne, Hampshire. The English surnames Earnshaw, Hernshaw, Herne, and Heron all derive from the heron, the suffix -shaw meaning a wood, referring to a place where herons nested. The bird is common in the Maldives under the name of Maakana and has given its name to the character of a satirical TV show. == References ==