High Rise Neighborhod
A Community in the Trees
Homes above your head are filling fast. Each January or February, Great
Blue Herons look for family housing. More and more of these large birds find safe
haven in this park. The eucalyptus trees serve as a popular apratment complex.
Once a year, these normally solitary birds come together as a heron colony to
raise their families.
Renovating and Reconstructing
Imagine rebuilding your neighborhood every year! Some parents choose fixer
uppers, reinforcing old nests. Others take apart old homes to build new ones. Still
others create completely fresh homes by collecting branches from surrounding
communities.
Joys of Parenting
Once the nest is ready, the parents incubate three to five light blue eggs for about
a month, taking turns being the stay-at-home parent. Shortly after the eggs
hatch, both parents return to the working world, hunting moles, lizards and fish
to regurgitate as baby food. In six weeks, the chicks are as large as their parents, but
it will be at least two and a half months before they are ready to fly from the nest.
Herons are back from the edge of
extinction. The colony above you is
a success story. The San Francisco
Bay Birds Observatory's scientific
research and education programs
ensure more success stories like
this one in your community.
|