Hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Sapsucker Woods Pond, Ithaca, New York. Camera 1: Nest as seen from above. Camera 2: Panoramic view (link at bottom of page)
About the Herons
This Great Blue Heron nest is in a giant white-oak snag in the middle of Sapsucker Woods pond, right outside the Cornell Lab’s Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity in Sapsucker Woods. Herons have nested here since summer 2009, hatching and fledging four young each year, and raising them on a steady diet of fish and frogs. Though neither bird is banded, you can identify the male by the absence of a hallux (the rear-facing toe) on his right foot. Adult herons can be up to 4.5 feet tall, with a wingspan that ranges up to 6 feet. Despite their large size, they typically only weigh around 5 pounds.
Herons usually lay 2-6 eggs and share incubation duties for 25-30 days. Incubation begins with the first egg, and the young hatch asynchronously (not at the same time) over 2-5 days. After hatching, it’ll take 7-8 weeks before they fly from the nest for the first time.
About the Nest
In 2009, the arrival of those first twigs marked the start of the first known Great Blue Heron nest in the history of Sapsucker Woods. Early in the spring of 2012 we installed two cameras to bring the hidden world of their nesting habits into full view. The nest itself is nearly four feet across and a foot deep, and wraps almost entirely around the trunk of the tree. The birds have slowly built up the nest over the last three years. The female laid her fourth egg on April 3 and we expect her to incubate until the last week in April.
About Sapsucker Woods
Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary was named in 1909 by famed bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes upon finding the first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker nest in the Ithaca region. About 3 miles from Cornell’s campus, Sapsucker Woods covers 230 acres of forest dominated by red maples, beech, and hickory, including the 10-acre pond that hosts the herons’ nest site.
Watch live at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website, where you can learn more about Great Blue Herons and the background of this nest. See you there!