With its striking plumage, the great blue heron is one of the mostwidely recognized wading birds in North America. Riding on kelp beds inthe Queen Charlotte Islands, wading in coastal streams along themainland, poised motionless at the water's edge on a mistymorning, or nesting in the limbs of old-growth forests, this statelybird is a familiar sight on the coast of British Columbia. The largestcolonies are on the Fraser River delta, an area of great ecologicalsignificance to the north Pacific.

Despite a growing body of knowledge regarding many aspects of thespecies' breeding biology and courtship behaviour, the foragingand population ecology of this bird remains something of an enigma. Inhis beautifully illustrated book, Robert Butler follows the great blueheron through a year on the coast of British Columbia. He draws on morethan a decade of work to throw light on the adaptability of thismagnificent bird to a temperate climate, its diet and breeding habits,habitat use, and conservation. Although the great blue heron has becomea symbol of wetland conservation, in recent years it has had to facenew challenges as a consequence of rapid urbanization of itsenvironment. In The Great Blue Heron the author also describesthe B.C. coast and shares a vision for the conservation of the Straitof Georgia and the Fraser River delta.