It exhibits a minor degree of sexual dimorphism males are slightly larger than females, but otherwise the sexes are not easily outwardly distinguishable. Among all extant herons, it is surpassed in size only by the goliath heron ( Ardea goliath) and the white-bellied heron ( Ardea insignis). The great blue heron is the largest heron native to North America. Southern Florida, Caribbean islands, formerly known as a separate species, the great white heron Kansas and Oklahoma to northern Florida, sightings in southeastern Georgia The Pacific Northwest from southern Alaska south to Washington coastal It forms a superspecies with this and also with the cocoi heron from South America, which differs in having more extensive black on the head and a white breast and neck. The great blue heron is replaced in the Old World by the very similar grey heron ( Ardea cinerea), which differs in being somewhat smaller (90–98 cm (35–39 in)), with a pale gray neck and legs, lacking the browner colors that the great blue heron has there. The scientific name comes from Latin ardea, and Ancient Greek ἐρῳδιός ( erōdios), both meaning "heron". The great blue heron was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae. Debate exists about whether this represents a white color morph of the great blue heron, a subspecies of it, or an entirely separate species. An all-white population found in south Florida and the Florida Keys is known as the great white heron. It is a rare vagrant to coastal Spain, the Azores, and areas of far southern Europe. The great blue heron ( Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbean and the Galápagos Islands.
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