Vertebrates
Mammals
Bat Species
Mountain Beaver
Pacific Water Shrew
Townsend’s Mole
Birds
Barn Owl
Barn Swallow
Great Blue Heron, fannini subspecies
Marbled Murrelet
American Goshawk, laingi subspecies
Short-eared Owl
Western Screech-Owl, kennicottii subspecies
Amphibians
Coastal Giant Salamander
Coastal Tailed Frog
Northern Red-legged Frog
Oregon Spotted Frog
Western Toad
Reptiles
Common Sharp-tailed Snake
Painted Turtle, Pacific Coast Population
Fish
Nooksack Dace
Salish Sucker
Invertebrates
Insects
Dun Skipper
Grappletail
Johnson’s Hairstreak
Molluscs
Olympia Oyster
Oregon Forestsnail
Plants
Non-Vascular
Poor pocket moss
Vascular
Phantom orchid
Streambank lupine
Tall bugbane
Vancouver Island beggarticks
Ecological Communities
Arbutus
Coastal Douglas-fir
Coastal Sand Ecosystems
Coastal Western Hemlock

Great Blue Heron are a member of the family Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets and Bitterns). Although herons resemble birds such as cranes, they are not in the same family. Herons are one of the bird groups that have “powder down” feathers which disintegrate into a fine powder and are used during preening to absorb and remove dirt and other matter which may reduce waterproofing and insulation. Seen around lowland rivers, lakes and streams, ocean shorelines, mud flats, fields, ditches and backyard ponds. Perches and nests in mature trees. These coastal herons do not migrate, living in BC year-round.

This is a species at risk. To find its current at-risk designation and listing info, visit the BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer. For direction on finding additional species recovery information, visit the Species and Ecological Communities Profiles Overview webpage.

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