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Herons comprise a distinctive family of birds, the Ardeidae, adapted to living in aquatic environments. The history of herons in human culture dates back at least 4,000 years, continuing through successive cultures. Through the millennia, hunting herons for sport, food, or feathers has been one of the more enduring conservation issues for the group. Killing egrets for their feathers initiated the modern conservation era in the United States and Europe. Overall, protection of nesting sites and feeding habitats has been, and remains, a significant theme in heron conservation. Owing to their longevity, wetland dependence, and site specificity, herons have been proposed as potential indicators of environmental conditions and trends. It has been recognized that landscape and regional conservation action is the most effective conservation tool for most species, but several species and populations have been identified as being at risk and requiring special species- and population-level planning and action. To facilitate the conservation of herons, HeronConservation, the Heron Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was founded in 1982 and has since led global engagement in heron conservation through communication, networking, technical syntheses, and action planning and facilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand how wading birds select among microhabitats that show spatial heterogeneity, a concrete weir located at the terminus of the Little Arkansas River in Wichita, Kansas, USA, was divided into patches based on water depth. Black-crowned Night-Herons ( Nycticorax nycticorax; n = 396), Great Egrets ( Ardea alba; n = 54), Snowy Egrets ( Egretta thula; n = 36), and Great Blue Herons ( Adrea herodias; n = 30) were observed for 60 hr from 10 June-29 July 2015. The total number of individuals was recorded, as was species-specific patch use, feeding activity, and aggression. Only time of day and water depth predicted the number of birds at the weir ( R2 = 0.52). Wading bird species differed in capture efficiency, mean prey size, and patch use. Great Blue Herons and Black-crowned Night-Herons mainly captured larger fish below the weir, Snowy Egrets captured mostly smaller fish along the weir edges, and Great Egrets captured both large and small fish. Mean fish length differed by patch and ranged from 2.8-11.9 cm. Total aggression correlated with the number of large fish caught but not with total fish; per capita aggression correlated with the number of birds. Electrofishing showed a non-uniform spatial distribution of fish numbers and biomass. Species-specific foraging patterns reflected patterns of water depth, fish distribution, and aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]