Galapagos shore birds, great blue, lava and yellow-crowned night herons

Herons and egrets are long-legged wading birds found over much of the temperate world, and it's no surprise there are six species of herons found in the Galápagos, five of whom are resident. Several of these species are quite familiar to North Americans -- the great blue heron and the great egret in particular. Usually herons feed on small fish or crabs, hence their regular appearance along rivers and coasts. But in the Galápagos, they also prey upon lizards, small iguanas, young birds, and turtle hatchlings. Though large birds, they are sometimes hard to spot: they will stand motionless as a treelimb, patiently waiting for an unsuspecting meal to wander within range of their long, darting neck.

Great Blue Heron
The great blue heron is the largest of the Galapagos herons and can be found nesting on most of the larger islands. It is a fierce and efficient predator and lives of a wide ranch of marine life. It will frequently take the hatchlings of turtles and marine iguana.

Lava Heron
This dark grey and somewhat sombre looking bird sits motionless on the lava rockpools around the seashore remaining alert and waiting for prey. It also feeds on turtle hatchlinngs and marine iguana.  It is the only endemic heron in the Galapagos.

Striated heron
(Ardeola striata), a slightly more distinctly marked bird with pale neck and breast with a black cap; the lava heron is almost entirely slate gray, ideal camouflage against the basaltic rocks of the islands. The scientific jury is still out on whether these are distinct species, or whether the more well-adapted lava heron is an evolutionary descendant of the emigrant striated.

Yellow-crowned night heron
(Nyctanassa violacea), quite common along waterways throughout the Americas. Mainly active at night, it feeds on insects large and small, and is sometimes seen in Puerto Ayora catching bugs by the light of streetlamps. Though primarily a coastal inhabitant, it has been sighted high on the volcanic slopes of Isabela, where it presumably forages for grasshoppers and other large insects.

Great egret
(Casmerodius alba) is also found here, though probably as a migrant rather than nesting species. These birds are sometimes mistaken for the Great blue, which also has a white phase.

Cattle egrets
(Bubulcus ibis) are also found, usually in the highlands with introduced cattle herds. Though today a common sight, these smaller white egrets are native to Africa, from which they migrated only in the last century to their current world-wide distribution.