other names
White-Fronted Heron or Blue Crane (which is erroneous)

..
DESCRIPTION

Sexes are similar with the males being slightly larger. Small, pale grey sometimes looking blue-ish in colour. Distinctive white face with long black beak. Top of throat is white. Eyes are yellow and legs are yellow to olive-yellow. Slightly darker flight feathers. 65 to 70cm in length. Wing span 1.05 metres.

Juvenile: Paler grey in colour. Only the throat is white.

Voice: A gobbling, gravelly croak, quite loud in alarm. Aggressive grating voice at nest site.

The White-Faced Heron can be found over most of Australia, but is mainly a winter visitor to the top end of the Northern Territory and Cape York Peninsula. It is noticably absent from the dry interior of Western Australia. The heron prefers shallow wetlands whether it be fresh, brackish or salt. It can often be found near streams, farm dams, shores, tidal mudflats, beaches, golf courses and in pastures, orchards, grassland and gardens with fish ponds. Its diet is generalistic and consists of crustaceans, squid, fish, spiders, insects, snails and worms. The heron can breed throughout most of the year but generally from September to November in southern parts of Australia. Usually 3 to 4 eggs are laid and placed in a shallow and untidy nest of sticks and leafy branches between 12 and 20 metres off the ground, often but not necessarily near water. As the eggs are incubating (24 to 26 days) the male and female relieve one another every 10 hours or so. Both parents brood and feed the young by regurgitation. Chicks fledge at around 40 days and often stay with the parents until they are chased off and the re-commencement of nesting. The White-Faced Heron is nomadic and part-migratory. It can also be found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and sub-Antartic islands.