Ecology Summary - Ardea herodias

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Ecology of Ardea herodias

Main Ref.	Elliott, J.E., R.W. Butler, R.J. Norstrom and P.E. Whitehead, 1989
Remarks	Dependent on healthy, uncontaminated coastal wetlands and estuaries for feeding. Wades in shallow water whilst foraging. Forms colonies. Piscivorous. In Florida Bay, natural feeding supplemented by "panhandling" association with humans where they feed on bait fish from locals and developed begging behavior from residents. In Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver, British Columbia, a large colony is able to persist in close proximity to human activities for over 78 years. In Florida Bay, population decline of 30-40% due to hurricanes were linked to nesting and foraging habitat degradation (Ref. 87784).

Main Ref.

Elliott, J.E., R.W. Butler, R.J. Norstrom and P.E. Whitehead, 1989

Remarks

Dependent on healthy, uncontaminated coastal wetlands and estuaries for feeding. Wades in shallow water whilst foraging. Forms colonies. Piscivorous. In Florida Bay, natural feeding supplemented by "panhandling" association with humans where they feed on bait fish from locals and developed begging behavior from residents. In Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver, British Columbia, a large colony is able to persist in close proximity to human activities for over 78 years. In Florida Bay, population decline of 30-40% due to hurricanes were linked to nesting and foraging habitat degradation (Ref. 87784).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Ardea herodias may be found.

Habitat

Substrate
Substrate Ref.
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.	Schreiber, E.A. and J. Burger, 2001
Associations	colony-forming/symphorism;
Associated with
Association remarks	Forms colonies. In Florida Bay, natural feeding supplemented by "panhandling" association with humans where they feed on bait fish from locals and developed begging behavior from residents (Ref. 87784).
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Schreiber, E.A. and J. Burger, 2001
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.	Schreiber, E.A. and J. Burger, 2001

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	4.43	0.77			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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