The breeding season of herons has started. Thanks to a camera installed by foresters you can observe the lives of those animals in a colony near Giżycko (Warmia and Masuria Voivodship).
Herons live on wetlands and the coasts of water tanks almost in the whole world, but mostly in lowland warm areas. They eat mostly aquatic animals such as fish, frogs, lizards, mice and insects. In Poland, the most common types of herons are grey and great blue ones, as well as the great egrets.
Recently the breeding period has started, and the grey herons were the first to hatch. The forestry management of Giżycko has informed that birds have taken 60 nests. What’s interesting, is ⅔ of them belong to great egrets, who are less frequent than the grey herons. Usually, the grey species produces 1 to 6 eggs per nest, while the great egret produces 2 to 5. Grey herons have white eggs, while egrets’ are blueish. The incubation period takes about 25 days and it’s done by both of the parents.
The forestry management of Giżycko provides live streaming on their page and gives regular updates about the lives of herons on a Facebook page Czaple online.
You can watch a hatching heron ⤵️