Great Blue Heron

Open encyclopedia reference

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family (Ardeidae), common near shores of open water and wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as Northwestern South America, the Caribbean, and the Galápagos Islands. It is occasionally found in the Azores and is a rare vagrant to Europe. An all-white population found in South Florida, the Florida Keys, and the Caribbean islands, is known as the great white heron. Debate exists about whether these white birds are a color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species.

Wikipedia contributors, Great blue heron; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:06:58.629096+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758

Name authority

Linnaeus, 1758

Common name

Great Blue Heron

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Pelecaniformes

Family

Ardeidae

Genus

Ardea

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderPelecaniformes
10. familyArdeidae Leach, 1820
11. genusArdea Linnaeus, 1758
12. speciesArdea herodias Linnaeus, 1758

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Ardea. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 37 records assigned to Ardeidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Linnaeus, & Carolus. (1758). Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, 10th Edition, Vol. 1. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:GCHW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.