Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Pelecaniformes > Ardeidae > Ardea > Ardea cinerea

Ardea cinerea (Grey Heron; Gray Heron)

Wikipedia Abstract

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a long-legged predatory wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more northern parts migrate southwards in autumn. A bird of wetland areas, it can be seen around lakes, rivers, ponds, marshes and on the sea coast. It feeds mostly on aquatic creatures which it catches after standing stationary beside or in the water or stalking its prey through the shallows.
View Wikipedia Record: Ardea cinerea

Infraspecies

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
19
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 6.37796
EDGE Score: 1.9985

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  3.159 lbs (1.433 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  61 grams
Female Weight [4]  3.001 lbs (1.361 kg)
Male Weight [4]  3.318 lbs (1.505 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [4]  10.6 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  10 %
Diet - Endothermic [3]  10 %
Diet - Fish [3]  60 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  30 %
Forages - Water Surface [3]  70 %
Clutch Size [7]  4
Clutches / Year [6]  1
Fledging [4]  49 days
Incubation [6]  27 days
Maximum Longevity [5]  35 years
Snout to Vent Length [4]  37 inches (94 cm)
Speed [8]  27.962 MPH (12.5 m/s)
Wing Span [8]  5.674 feet (1.73 m)
Female Maturity [5]  2 years
Male Maturity [5]  2 years

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (989)

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Levinseniella brachysoma[10]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Audio

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Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Storchová, Lenka; Hořák, David (2018), Data from: Life-history characteristics of European birds, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n6k3n
2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
5de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
6British Trust for Ornithology
7Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
8Alerstam T, Rosén M, Bäckman J, Ericson PGP, Hellgren O (2007) Flight Speeds among Bird Species: Allometric and Phylogenetic Effects. PLoS Biol 5(8): e197. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050197
9Ecology of Commanster
10Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
11Seasonal diet of the Grey Heron Ardea cinerea on an oceanic island (Tenerife, Canary Islands): indirect interaction with wild seed plants, Airam RODRÍGUEZ, Beneharo RODRÍGUEZ, Beatriz RUMEU & Manuel NOGALES, ACTA ORNITHOLOGICA Vol. 42 (2007) No. 1
12Georychus capensis, Nigel C. Bennett, Sarita Maree, and Chris G. Faulkes, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 799, pp. 1-4 (2006)
13Otomys irroratus, G. Bronner, S. Gordon, and J. Meester, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 308, pp. 1-6 (1988)
14Cirtwill, Alyssa R.; Eklöf, Anna (2018), Data from: Feeding environment and other traits shape species' roles in marine food webs, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1mv20r6
15SYMENS, P. (1988). Effects of the mass migration of desert locusts Schistocerca gregaria on birds in the Taif area. Arabia.
16Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0