The 2 Types of Herons Found in Montana (And Where to Spot Them)
October 29, 2026
Ask ten birders about the types of herons in Montana, and most will only be able to name one: the Great Blue Heron. That’s a reasonable guess, since Great Blue Herons are recorded on roughly 10% of summer checklists, 4% of winter checklists, and 14% of migration-season checklists submitted by Montana bird watchers. Montana’s other resident heron, the Black-crowned Night-Heron, is so secretive that even people living near its breeding wetlands may never spot one in person.
Only two heron species nest in Montana on a regular basis, and this guide walks through how to identify each one, where they turn up across the state, and what makes their day-to-day habits so different. Montana’s checklists occasionally include rarities such as the Little Blue Heron, an accidental spring and fall migrant, and the Tricolored Heron, first detected in the state in 2019, but neither breeds here consistently. The two species covered below are the ones worth learning first.
Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is the bird most people picture when someone mentions herons in Montana, and its size explains why. According to the Montana Field Guide, it is the largest heron in North America, standing about 60 centimeters tall, measuring 97 to 135 centimeters long, and weighing 2.1 to 2.5 kilograms. It’s also one of the more recognizable water birds found anywhere on the continent.
The upperparts are gray, and the fore-neck is streaked with white, black, and rust-brown, while the bill is yellowish and the legs range from brownish to greenish. During breeding season, adults grow long occipital plumes trailing off the back of the head. Birders often describe the overall look as grayish-blue, and the birds’ long gray necks with black-and-white streaking pair with grayish-blue bodies and long gray legs — a color scheme that puts them among the more distinctive birds with blue-toned plumage in North America.
In flight, the Great Blue Heron folds its neck into an “S” shape and extends its legs along the body axis, a detail that separates it from Sandhill Cranes, since Sandhill Cranes fly with both legs and necks fully extended. During the breeding season, listen for a loud, odd-sounding “oong-KA-chunk” call with an almost liquid quality — often the easiest way to locate one before you see it.
Key Insight: Adult Great Blue Herons have few natural predators and can be surprisingly aggressive when provoked — they’ve even been known to kill eagles with their beaks.
Territorial displays are just as dramatic as their defense tactics. Great Blue Herons defend their feeding territory with wings outstretched and their heads thrown back. When it’s time to nest, they gather in colonies, building bulky stick nests lined with softer material high in trees close to water, and because they reuse the same nests year after year, repairing and adding to them over time, some structures grow noticeably larger each season.
A typical female lays two to seven eggs, with both parents sharing incubation duties for about four weeks. Numbers of Great Blue Herons in Montana swell during migration, particularly from April through May and again from August through September, though some individuals remain in western Montana year-round. More broadly, Great Blue Herons stay put in most U.S. states all year, while populations that breed in the Midwest and Canada head south for winter. Within Montana itself, some birds migrate south in late fall and return in early spring, while others stick around all year wherever open water persists.
Pro Tip: Early morning or late evening offers the best viewing for Great Blue Herons, since that’s when they’re most actively feeding in shallow water.
Good starting points across the state include:
- The Yellowstone River corridor and Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge
- The marshes around Flathead Lake
- The Missouri River Breaks National Monument
- Three Forks, where the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers meet
- Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge, which hosts nesting colonies of Great Blue Herons and Double-crested Cormorants
Wherever you search, remember that it is illegal to harm, kill, or collect herons or their eggs in Montana. Habitat comparisons with other regions can be useful too — Great Blue Herons behave somewhat differently in Oregon’s wetter climate than they do among California’s coastal marshes, largely because of how much open water stays ice-free through winter.
Black-crowned Night-Heron
The Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) could hardly look more different from its towering cousin. According to the Montana Field Guide, it’s a medium-sized wading bird measuring just 58 to 66 centimeters long, with a stocky build, a relatively large head, and a noticeably short neck and legs.
Males and females look nearly identical, though males run slightly larger. Adults wear gray plumage set off by a black crown, a black bill, and legs that shift from yellow to yellow-green. Eye color is a reliable age indicator: chicks hatch with grayish-olive eyes that progress through light yellow, bright yellow, and orange before settling into a deep red by two to three years of age. During the breeding season, adults grow two to three long white occipital plumes trailing from the black crown, while juveniles show broad brown-and-white streaking on the breast and large white spots across the wing coverts instead of the adult pattern.
How Can You Tell a Black-crowned Night-Heron Apart From Other Herons?
Sound is often the fastest clue. The common call is a sharp “Qua, Quak, Quark” or outright “Squawk,” while a hissing “Plup” serves as an advertising call given from the nest. If startled along the shoreline, the bird typically responds with a loud, barking “quawk.”
Confusion with the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron is unlikely in Montana, since the state’s field guide lists the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron as an accidental species rather than a regular resident. Elsewhere in the country, where ranges overlap more, the National Audubon Society notes that juvenile Black-crowned Night-Herons show noticeably larger, thicker white spots on their wings than juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Herons do — a useful detail if you’re comparing notes with birders in other states.
| Feature | Great Blue Heron | Black-crowned Night-Heron |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 97–135 cm | 58–66 cm |
| Build | Tall, long-necked, long-legged | Stocky, short-necked, short-legged |
| Most Active | Daytime | Dusk and night |
| Common Call | “oong-KA-chunk” | “Qua, Quak, Quark” or “Squawk” |
| Montana Status | Common, widespread breeder | Rare breeding resident |
True to its name, the Black-crowned Night-Heron is most active at dusk and after dark, spending daylight hours tucked into dense brush near the water’s edge. Foraging after sunset isn’t just about avoiding people — hunting at night likely helps the species avoid competing with other herons that feed during the day, including its much larger neighbor described above.
Within Montana, the species is considered a rare breeding resident of wetland complexes across the northern and southwestern parts of the state. As of the most recent state review, Montana ranks the species S3B, with the review dated December 10, 2024, and most known breeding sites have stayed occupied over roughly the past decade while the species faces few significant threats.
Breeding activity in Montana follows a fairly tight window: nesting behavior has been documented in May, June, and July. The birds are social nesters, too — they often nest close to White-faced Ibis and Franklin’s Gull, and sometimes settle into mixed colonies alongside Great Blue Herons, a pattern also seen among Minnesota’s night-heron colonies further east.
Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge holds the largest documented colony in Montana, with as many as 30 active nests recorded in a single year. Nest sites vary enormously, from ground level to as high as 160 feet up in trees, and a typical clutch holds three to five pale greenish-blue eggs that both parents incubate for roughly 24 to 26 days. Young birds fledge at around 42 days old but usually don’t breed themselves until they’re two to three years of age.
Important Note: Herons and their eggs are protected under Montana law statewide. If you find a disabled heron or suspect illegal activity, contact Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks immediately rather than intervening yourself.
Good places to look include the Freezeout Lake area, where Black-crowned Night-Herons nest alongside Eared Grebes, Western Grebes, and Wilson’s Phalaropes, as well as Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge. You can confirm identification details against the eBird species profile before heading out, especially if you’re comparing juveniles.
Despite its low profile in Montana, this is genuinely a global bird. It’s the most widespread heron species in the world, and according to HeronConservation, the Heron Specialist Group, it breeds across the temperate and tropical world, from the Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The North American subspecies nests west into Washington, south Idaho, and Montana, putting the state near the edge of the bird’s western breeding range. Similar breeding patterns and colony behavior show up in state surveys covering Tennessee’s herons and Illinois heron populations, both of which document Black-crowned Night-Herons using comparable nesting strategies farther east.
Montana’s two resident herons could not ask for more different lifestyles, yet both depend on the same healthy wetlands to survive. The Great Blue Heron rewards patient daytime observers with its towering silhouette and dramatic territorial displays, while the Black-crowned Night-Heron asks for a later start, sharper ears, and a bit of luck peering into the brush at dusk. Learning to tell them apart — by size, sound, and schedule — turns almost any walk along a Montana river or wetland into a genuine wildlife-watching outing.
For more on how these habits play out elsewhere, guides to New York’s heron populations offer an East Coast comparison, and the Audubon Society’s Montana birding overview covers other wetland species that share habitat with both heron types. If Montana’s other overlooked wildlife interests you, guides to Montana’s bat species and Montana’s hummingbirds round out the picture of what shares these same riverbanks and wetlands after dark.