The Cattle Egret is also the best example of a bird with long legs using them to observe their environment, and also allows them to catch flying insects in a wider range of vertical motion. They’re also the only white egret with both a yellow bill and yellow legs. It prefers open, grassy areas such as pastures, meadows, marshes, flood plains, and swamps. The Cattle Egret is found in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, but is believed to have originated in only central Africa and spread during the 19th century. They’re technically a sub-category of the Green-Backed Herons, which also includes the Striated Heron and the Galapagos Heron, but gained their own categorization for their tendency to wander following the breeding season unlike the other two. It’s actually one of the few tool-using birds – they’ll often drop bait onto the surface of the water and then grab the smaller fish that it attracts. It technically has the shortest legs of all herons, but they’re still considerably longer than most birds and are used primarily as vantage points and wading stilts. It’s an opportunistic feeder that prefers fish as their primary food, but will go after anything small enough to fit in its mouth. It prefers to spend winters along the west coast and in the Southern United States along rivers, oceans, lakes, and ponds. The Green Heron breeds across most of the United States, with the exception of eastern Washington to the Dakotas. However, recent studies have shown that the herons tend to eat sick fish that spend more time near the surface, which actually keeps the hatcheries cleaner and a stronger ecosystem.

This can occasionally cause problems for the fish farmers and has earned the Blue Heron a reputation of a pest. Great Blue Herons are the largest herons in North America, and tend to congregate at fish hatcheries. Its long legs are used both for wading and for finding a higher vantage point that gives them a better view of potential prey. It relies on strong wing-beats to remain in flight and follows a very steady path in the sky. They feed mostly on small fish in their aquatic habitat, but will happily eat a variety of foods. The Great Blue Heron isn’t really blue, but more of a blue-gray on their back and a black, gray, and white striped underside. The Great Egret also has a direct flight, meaning it flies in a straight and level path while continuously flapping their wings, and so relies entirely on their powerful and large wings for liftoff. Their most distinctive characteristic is that unlike most heron species, the Great Egret flies with its neck retracted. Like most wading birds, they possess long legs ideal for standing in shallow water in search of prey. They breed all throughout the United States, but prefer fresh and salt marshes, marshy ponds, and tidal flats along the Atlantic coastline. During the mating season, they gain beautiful feather plumes that extend from the back to beyond the tail for the purposes of finding a suitable mate. The Great Egret has bright yellow eyes and brilliant white plumage. Because of this, local names for the species include “thunder-pumper” and “mire-drum” for the deep booming call. It has an incredibly distinctive call that’s been described as similar to the sound an old wooden water pump would make. This bird has long legs for the purposes of wading, as shown in the photo. Their main diet is water insects such as dragonflies and waterbugs, but they will also eat many amphibians and snakes as well.

They have a white underbelly that’s boldly streaked with dark brown stripes that are able to easily blend in with the vegetation around them, making them especially hard to spot. The American Bittern is a plump wading bird that’s an expert in camouflage. American Bittern image: Kelly Colgan Azar | Flickr | CC 2.0 This is a list of 20 types of birds with long legs that are especially notable for not only their length, but the roles they play in fragile swamp ecosystems and their unique foraging techniques. Cranes especially have been revered as graceful hunters, and the long legs of all these birds serve as stilts for their primarily aquatic habitats. There are many body types among birds, but none evokes more beauty or joy than that of the long-legged ones.

Bird bell fish tree