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AKA: Little Green Heron, Shietpoke, Skeow

Identification:
• small, cryptically colored
• sits with neck contracted
• greenish black crown, white undersides streaked with white
• 18 inches long
• iridescent green back
• legs and beak yellow/green to orange

Nesting: The male and female both help build the nest in low shrubs. The nest is usually concealed, flat and interwoven. They occasionally are located on branches over the water. Two to four eggs with some reports of up to seven, the color is light green or blue. Incubation is three weeks and fledging is about five weeks. The young learn quickly to climb branches and wander from the nest. Parents will tend young for at least a month after they have left the nest.

Food: Fish, insects and other small vertebrates and invertebrates. Fish is relative to ease of obtaining them.

Range: Most of eastern United States and very lowest portions of Canada and coastal fringe of the Pacific including Baja.

Behavior: The birds slowly crouch and wait for food to come by. Their neck is like the shaft of a javelin and quickly prey is speared. Flight is rapid with deep wing beats. Flies with neck semi-extended. Some green-backs have been seen dropping bait of insects into the water and waiting for minnows to feed before having lunch. Most are solitary. The genus name means bittern-like.