The
great blue heron (
Ardea herodias) is a large wading
bird in the
heron family
Ardeidae, common near the shores of
open water and in
wetlands over most of
North America and
Central America, as well as the
Caribbean and the
Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the
Azores, England, and the Netherlands. An all-white population found only in the Caribbean and southern Florida was once treated as a separate species and known as the
great white heron.