David Liebmann, an educator who has birded throughout the nation, recalls a day in which he arrived at Powdermill Nature Reserve’s Avian Research Center in Rector, Pennsylvania.
He remembers, “the Green Heron lay cradled in the crook of Bob Mulvihill’s arm like a baby.” The Green Heron is one of the many unique birds scientists have been capturing, banding, and studying since the early 1960s.
The Green Heron is most known for it’s ornate plumage, with a deep green back and crown as well as a chestnut neck and breast. The crow-sized, often sneaky hunter lives around wooded ponds and marshy areas often times standing motionless at the water’s edge luring it’s prey of sunfish or minnows.
Liebman describes the Heron as, “wonderfully elusive. Until you see one. Then it’s like a true revelation: quiet, unhurried, unto itself.”
For more information on how you can attend the
Powdermill Avian Research Center (PARC), visit https://powdermillarc.org/about/visiting-parc/.
Powdermill Nature Reserve’s avian research center is part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s biological research station in Rector, Pennsylvania. The research center operates a bird banding station, conducts bioacoustical research, and performs flight tunnel analysis with the goal of reducing window collisions.
