Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Great Blue Heron [lateral view of alternate-plumaged adult]. Photograph Credit: Stephen J. Stedman; Roaring River Recreation Area, Jackson County, Tennessee; 15 May 2012.

Abundance: Common at all seasons; recorded in all Regional counties (Map of UCR Distribution); the Regional population has trended significantly upward since the late 1980s (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Permanent Resident; a distinctive form of this species, the Great White Heron (Ardea herodias occidentalis) (LINK to Account for Great White Heron), has been recorded in the Region; photograph [lateral view of alternate-plumaged adult] (Stephen J. Stedman; Roaring River Recreation Area, Jackson County, Tennessee; 15 May 2012); photograph [head of alternate-plumaged adult] (Stephen J. Stedman; Roaring River Recreation Area, Jackson County, Tennessee; 15 May 2012).

Regional High Count and CBC/CBB High Count: 106 (19 December 2000; Clay County, Tennessee [CBC]; m. ob.); SBC/SBB High Count: 66 (26 April 2008; Jackson County, Tennessee [SBB]; m. ob.); FBC/FBB High Count: 35 (25 September 2010; DeKalb County, Tennessee [FBB]; m. ob.). Note: the Regional High Count was obtained when the fish tanks at the National Fish Hatchery in Celina, Clay County, Tennessee, were not covered, allowing large numbers of piscivores, including Great Blue Herons, to forage at the tanks; after the tanks were covered with netting of the correct size, large piscivores were excluded from the tanks, and numbers of Great Blue Herons counted during the Clay County CBC decreased considerably, probably never to return to the large numbers counted prior to erecting the nets.

Breeding: Confirmed (Recent). Formerly a Rare or Very Uncommon breeder, but beginning in the late 1980s and continuing to the present (2011) nesting season, the Great Blue has increased rather noticeably during the breeding season, and many heronries are now known to dot the Regional landscape (see also Table 1 [below]).

Table 1. Sites of Great Blue Heron rookeries in the Upper Cumberland Region.

Habitat: Almost any small wetland or pond, as well as all larger wetlands and bodies of water, can be attractive to this heron at least occasionally.  Heronries are usually placed in somewhat isolated areas in the mid- and upper-canopy of large deciduous trees; as of 2011, Regional heronries varied in number of nests from as few as one to as many as 60.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: Registered on 42 (of 125) monthly check-lists during 2003 and on 83 (of 206) check-lists during 2004, leading to a YardWatch frequency classification of Fairly Common during each year; these results indicate that the Great Blue is a bit less likely to be detected in Regional yards and neighborhoods than in the Region as a whole.

Foray Results: A summary of data from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: The expansion of the breeding population of Great Blue Heron in the Region (and in Tennessee and Kentucky) has been under way for about a quarter century. Foray data provide some of the best Regional evidence for the existence of this expansion, as well as when it was initiated.  The TOS Forays conducted in Fentress and Pickett counties during early June 1979 turned up no Great Blues in either county; the TOS Foray in White County during late May 1982 was likewise unable to produce a single sighting of this species; and the TOS Foray in Overton County during late May 1986 was similarly without a sighting of this heron.  However, the TOS Foray conducted in Bledsoe County during mid-June 1987 did result in at least one registration of the Great Blue, so we may surmise that the late 1980s saw the beginning of Great Blue expansion as a breeding species in the Region.  By two decades later, all 11 UCR Forays conducted 2007–2011 resulted in numerous registrations of this largest and most common of the breeding ardeids in the Region, and numerous small- to moderate-sized heronries were located in many Regional counties.

    Data from the Breeding Bird Atlas projects conducted in Kentucky (1985–1991) and Tennessee (1986–1991) also reveal a quite thinly distributed breeding population in the Region during the course of those projects. Only one block in 10 Kentucky counties harbored this species during the former project (Palmer-Ball 1996), while during forays conducted in just three Kentucky counties about 30  blocks harbored this heron 2009–2011.  In the 16 counties of the Tennessee portion of the Region, about 40 blocks harbored this heron during the atlas project, but no heronry was found in any block (Nicholson 1997); however, during the forays conducted 2007–2011 in just eight counties in the Tennessee portion of the Region about 110 blocks harbored this heron, and many small heronries were found.

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited