Watching Great blue heron nest building. I'm looking for cues to identify when the male is near with a twig. So far, the female seems to stretch her neck as a prelude for the male's appearance, but not every time. I’ve found a very useful paper describing the behavior of Great Blue Herons
At this point, the female seems to be in charge of construction, with the male flying off to a convenient tree or vine, harvesting a small twig and returning to the nest. He passes the twig to the female who then weaves it into the nest. They have a short chat and he departs to repeat this action. The images below illustrate various elements of this process.
My "Heron" tree. There are three nests in this tree - one in the lower right (you can se the occupant), one in the middle (occupant mostly hidden) and a third nest above and behind this nest (the occupant is standing on top of a limb (perhaps waiting for a twig).
A discussion between male and female
Male bringing a twig for the nest
Male passing the twig to the female
Female grasps the twig in her bill
A neighbor
I'm not certain what this bill touching is all about - kissing?
Departing to search for another twig
Returning with a small twig
Returning with a large twig
Preparing to land and pass the twig
Bringing another twig
I've yet to capture how the male harvests twigs - but here is another episode of twig fetching
Bringing another twig
And another - after all, you build a nest 1 twig at a time
I'm not sure what this is all about - perhaps two males in search of a female?
There is an interesting "dual of bills" between the male and female
Here one grabs the beak of the other
Flying away
