Herons return to Vancouver’s Stanley Park

Vancouver’s Pacific Great Blue Heron colony has officially returned to Stanley Park to nest.

The city says this marks the 24th consecutive year the birds have made their way to the park to raise their offspring.

According to officials, the colony brought 61 fledglings, “overcoming persistent eagle raids and a delayed nesting season, due to winter weather.”

The city says the first Pacific Great Blue Heron was documented in Stanley Park in 1921.

The colony’s nesting locations have changed in the decades since, and have been located around the tennis courts above Park Lane since 2001.

“Vancouver is proudly one of North America’s largest urban heron colonies,” the city explains, noting 80 per cent of B.C.’s great blue heron population is found in and around the Fraser River.

The species is federally protected and classified as one of “special concern” in B.C.

The city notes the Pacific Great Blue Heron population has seen a steady decline since the 1980s, due mainly to nesting failures, eagle attacks, habitat loss, and human impacts.

While most great blue herons migrate, the City of Vancouver says the Pacific Great Blue Heron does not.

The city is asking people to do their part and not disrupt the birds as they nest. You’re asked to observe the herons from outside of fenced areas, avoid making loud noises within 30 metres of the colony, keep dogs on a leash, and not fly drones around the birds.

You can also see the birds through the City of Vancouver’s Heron Cam, which is now in its ninth year.