Heron, Egret And Ally Families

This group gathers taxon/Bird Families subcategory members that are themselves bird families belonging to the wading and fish-eating waterbirds historically grouped as Ciconiiformes and Pelecaniformes, herons, egrets, ibises, storks, pelicans and cormorants among them. Every family gathered here is adapted to hunting fish, amphibians and other aquatic prey in shallow water or, in the cormorants, by diving and swimming in pursuit underwater, most carrying a long, spear-like or hook-tipped bill suited to seizing slippery prey with a single fast strike. Many species nest colonially in large, mixed-species rookeries, sometimes numbering thousands of pairs at a single site, a strategy that offers safety in numbers against predators even as it concentrates the colony's feeding demand on the surrounding wetland.