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Grey herons occur in most parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Over much of their range, these birds are resident, but populations from the more northerly parts of Europe migrate southwards; some remain in Central and Southern Europe, and others travel on to Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Grey herons can be found anywhere with suitable watery habitats that can supply their food. Although most common in the lowlands, they also occur in mountain tarns, lakes, reservoirs, large and small rivers, marshes, ponds, ditches, flooded areas, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and seashore. They sometimes forage away from water in the pasture, and can even be found in desert areas, hunting for beetles and lizards.
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Grey herons are social birds; they may feed alone or in groups and at night they roost in trees or on cliffs and tend to be gregarious. During the breeding season, they nest in big colonies. Grey herons usually hunt around dawn and dusk but they may also be active at other times of the day. They often perch in trees, but spend much time on the ground, striding about or standing still for long periods with an upright stance, often on a single leg. The main call of Grey herons is a loud croaking "fraaank", but a variety of guttural and raucous noises is heard at the breeding colony. A loud, harsh "schaah" is used by the male in driving other birds from the vicinity of the nest, and a soft "gogogo" expresses anxiety, as when a predator is nearby or a human walks past the colony. The chicks utter loud chattering or ticking noises.
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Grey herons are the largest birds most of us ever see in our garden: the wing span is around 6ft.
Despite their size, they are surprisingly light, weighing on average only half as much as a greylag goose.
The old English name for a heron was hragra; other names now largely fallen into disuse include harn, hernser and hernshaw. Heron comes from the French, for the French name is héron céndre.
In medieval times the heron was a favourite quarry of falconers who valued its great flying skills and ability to evade the falcon's stoops.
Roast herons were also popular at medieval banquets: the young birds, called branchers, were thought to be the best to eat.
The fat of a heron killed at full moon was once believed to be a cure for rheumatism.
Herons are sociable birds when nesting, invariably nesting in long-established heronries.
Most heronries are in trees, with the majority of nests at least 25m above the ground. However, reed-bed heronries are not unusual, and they will also nest on cliffs, bushes, sometimes even on buildings of bridges.
Heronries can reach a prodigious size: one at Great Snowden's Wood, near Brede in Sussex, contained around 400 nests in 1866.
The biggest heronry in Britain is currently at Northward Hill in Kent, an RSPB reserve. Numbers here have peaked at over 200 nests, but the current total is around 150.
