Ithaca, NY just got a whole lot cuter with the arrival of five Great Blue Heron chicks! The fuzzballs hatched over a few days at the end of April/beginning of May and the world was watching thanks for some carefully placed webcams. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology installed the high-definition cameras in 2009 when the birds first arrived at Sapsucker Woods to roost, the first time such birds had nested in the park. The herons have been in the nest—which are also called heronries—ever since, and the treetop bungalow is now four feet across and a foot deep. Plenty of space to house a growing family!
Right now the chicks are little puffs of fuzzy feathers, but one day they could grow to be over four feet tall with a wingspan of roughly six feet. Mom and Dad take turns watching over the hatchlings, but unlike many bird species, the males and females are nearly identical, making it difficult to determine who is ruling the roost. A nearby pond provides plenty of fish to feed the growing babies who clack excitedly at meal times. The chicks will test their wings for flight in about two months and leave home about a month after that. Great Blue Herons hatch one clutch per year so now is the time to gawk at the babies!
To date the webcam has had over 586,000 visitors and interest was so strong that Cornell began a Twitter account to make daily updates about life in the nest. Check out the LiveStream below to peek in on these majestic birds.
Previously in Winged Animal Week: we talked to City Birder Rob Jett about urban birdwatching, visited Brooklyn's backyard chicken coops and Aww'd over some newly hatched Black Necked Swans.
