Great Blue Heron
Stands motionless while it scans for prey or it wades belly deep using long, deliberate steps. It can strike rapidly to capture its prey.
They hunt alone but often breed in rookeries, sleeping at night amongst flocks of more than 100 other herons.
Migratory, though some populations in the southern US stay in one area year-round.
They are carnivores - eating mainly fish, but also frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards, young birds, small mammals, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, dragonflies, and grasshoppers, as well as many aquatic invertebrates.
Fun fact: they can swallow fish much larger than their narrow neck.
Herons are thought to have lived 25 million years ago.
Heron chicks have gray eyes when born but they become bright yellow when they are adults.