Egretta sacra (Linnaeus, 1758)
Pacific Reef Heron
Marshallese: "kabõj"

The Pacific Reef Heron is a common year-round resident at Kwajalein. They come in all white, all dark gray, or mottled gray and white color forms. They are most often seen on the beaches or feeding on small fishes on intertidal reefs at low tide, but will also eat insects on the islands. I watched one plucking out of the air flies that were swarming around some dog dung. We have a special affinity for reef herons, having raised two of them from medium or large sized chicks until they went off on their own. The photos on the current page are all wild birds, but photos and stories of our raised gray heron and white heron can be found by following the two links immediately below:


Raised gray heron


Raised white heron

The photos below start off with a couple of all white herons.

All black.

Various mottled herons.

This one snared a dark colored blenny on the reef.

An all gray heron hunting at low tide.

Taking off.

In flight.

Parent with nearly full grown chick.

Parent feeding nearly full grown chick.

Created 25 January 2018

Return to Kwaj birds

Kwajalein Underwater home