Great Blue Heron Taxonomy & Classification

Image Source: AllAboutBirds.org

 

Great Blue Heron

The great blue heron (Ardea herodias) is a common, nonetheless impressive, sight along the shoreline of Machicomoco State Park. The following is the taxonomic and classification breakdown of the species from subspecies to kingdom.


Subspecies

    Ardea herodias herodias. The dominant subspecies of North America

    Ardea herodias fannini. Found along the coast of the Pacific Northwest from Alaska to Washington

    Ardea herodias wardi. Found in Kansas and Oklahoma to northern Florida

    Ardea herodias occidentalis. Once considered a separate species - the great white heron - this subspecies is found in south Florida and the Caribbean islands

    Ardea herodias cognata. Found in the Galapagos islands.


Genus

Ardea. Latin for “heron,” this genus is considered the genus of herons - long legged birds with spear-like bills. Within this genus, the birds are typically large (80-100 cm in length, and associated with wetlands - feeding on fish, frogs, and other aquatic species while wading in the water. Most herons form breeding colonies in trees. Northern species, including the great blue heron, migrate south for the winter. Herons are distinguished from storks, cranes, flamingos, and spoonbills by their form during flight: herons retract their necks during flight while these others fly with necks extended (Wikipedia).


Subfamily:

    Ardeinae

Family

    Ardeidae. Considered the Heron family, it includes 64 species, some which are referred to, not as herons, but as egrets or bitterns. These birds are typically long necked, and long legged. They may be freshwater or coastal species. The aforementioned tucked-neck flying form holds true within this family, as well (Wikipedia)


Suborder

    Ardei. Includes herons, egrets and bitterns, as well as ibises and spoonbills (Wikipedia)

Order

    Pelecaniformes is the order of medium to large water birds that feed on aquatic life. Typically, all four toes are webbed as opposed to three webbed toes- this was traditionally the defining feature for the order but was found to be erroneous. They must breathe through their mouths as their nostrils are dysfunctional. They breed in colonies but form monogamous pairs (Wikipedia).


Class

    Aves. This is the order for birds, which includes over ten thousand living species. They are warm-blooded vertebrates characterized by feathers and toothless beaked jaws. They lay hard shelled eggs, have a relatively high metabolic rate with lightweight but strong skeletal structures (Wikipedia)


Phylum

    Chordata. All species within this phylum has or had at one point during an individual’s developmental period the following characteristics: 1) a notochord which sends signals to the surrounding tissue during development, 2) a dorsal hollow nerve cord, 3) an endostyle (which aids in filter feeding or a thyroid, 4) pharyngeal slits, which may be related to the evolution of filter feeding and aquatic breathing, and 5) a post-anal tail (Wikipedia). It is worth noting that these characteristics are consistent with the evolutionary theory that animal life, if not all life originated in the oceans.


Kingdom

    Animalia. The Animal Kingdom - multicellular eukaryotes that consume organic matter for energy, breathe oxygen to power cellular respiration, are capable of motion, and reproduce sexually. There are over 1.5 million living animal species, 1 million of which are insects (Wikipedia).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plant Identification Apps: Which is right for you iNaturalist of LeafSnap?

Image
  Which is right for you iNaturalist of LeafSnap ? I used iNaturalist for plant identification. Its design has both positive and negative aspects. If you are seeking immediate answers, iNaturalist is probably not going to be your first choice. In order to get an identification of a plant species, I had to load the picture to the iNaturalist community and wait for a reply. About 48 hours ago, I uploaded two species and have gotten an identification for one of them. On the positive side, iNaturalist is much more than a species identifier. It has features that allow you to explore the natural area around you, review a variety of naturalist guides, and allows you to search for citizen science projects in which you could potentially participate. iNaturalist has an ecology-meets-social-media vibe and could be a valuable asset for those seeking such connections. Given the robustness of its features, iNaturalist is worth exploring. LeafSnap was able to identify this image as Chinese privet (I
Read more

Bird Identification: Audubon's Bird ID - worth flocking toward.

Image
  Audubon's  Bird ID - worth flocking toward. Audubon’s Bird ID is simply great fun. You can learn a lot about birds around the world just by exploring the app’s features. It is essentially an interactive Audubon guide. However, it has functions that go well beyond what a traditional field guide could offer - such as bird songs. When you open the app, it gives you two choices - either identify a bird or search the guide. With the identifying, the user answers a number of questions about their observation to narrow down the species. These questions are straightforward and provide an interesting insight to bird behavior such as how the species flies (soaring, hovering, undulating, etc.). The user can answer as few or as many questions as they like to narrow the choices. This option is a good choice for those in the field able to make observations with or without binoculars.  Great Blue Herons ( Ardeidae Ardea herodias ) are a common site at Machicomoco State Park.  (Image Source: Aud
Read more

Proposed Study Site

  I would like to choose Virginia’s Machicomoco State Park (MPS) as my study area. A Google Map link can be found here. MPS is a relatively new state park, and I hope that any fieldwork here could provide the park with novel data. At this point, I do not know if the park has baseline wildlife data, but I would like the opportunity to contribute truly useful, non-redundant information. The park has a deep, pre-European cultural history and is located on the waters of the tidal York river. It might be interesting to inventory the native and non-native fauna that make use of the park and the river. York River State Park is across the river and upstream from MPS. But that park is well-established and probably already has a good bit of data that could be used as a comparison. I’d like to research MPS because I admire the Virginia State Parks and because I enjoy field work. My family and I are in the middle of moving to West Point, Virginia, not far from MPS. I will continue my work as a pu
Read more