Guandu Metro Station - The Grey Heron with a Garbage Bag Cloak | Guandu Metro Station “Carnival of the Animals” × Fuxinggang Metro Station “Big Contributions from Small Soldiers”

The Grey Heron with a Garbage Bag Cloak

A-ron is a well-known loner in a siege of grey herons. He doesn’t pay much attention to his appearance, has no worldly desires, and doesn't care much about gossip in the neighborhood. After falling for someone he encountered at the lake, however, he has been into working out and looking after himself. He even began to wear a colorful plastic bag he found floating on the water. A-ron hopes that by donning it, his crush spots him straight away and pairs up with him.

Grey Heron

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a wading bird of the heron family.

Features

The grey heron measures about 100 centimeters long with a 150-centimeter wingspan. Its plumage is largely grey, and its neck is able to kink into an S-shape with a distinctive black vertical stripe. Adults have evident black supercilia. Immature herons generally have greyer and duller plumage and lack supercilia.
Habitat

It can be seen in wetland areas of no deeper than 80 centimeters. Besides being active in bodies of water, suitable woodland around wetlands also provides a habitat for it to breed and rest.
Distribution

The grey heron ranges widely from Africa, Europe and Asia. Breeding activity for the major group of grey heron mainly takes place in Siberia, northern China, Hokkaido in Japan and the Korean Peninsula after the snow melts in spring. At the end of summer, they migrate southwards, though some remain and linger in mid-latitude areas. They can be seen all year round.
Habits

When it forages, it displays a sense of territory to drive rivals away. During the spring and autumn transit period, they will migrate in a flock. In major relay stations, hundreds or even thousands of grey heron can be found.
Diet

It mainly feeds on fish. The grey heron can swallow tilapia up to 15 centimeters in length and can also fully swallow amphibians and rats.

Extended Reading

When you think of grey herons living in wetlands, does a picture emerge akin to them leisurely stepping on soft mud as smooth as a mirror?

Is this what wetlands with abundant ecologies are currently like?

The estuary of the Dadu River has long been surrounded by thermal power plants, industrial parks, piles of waste, and garbage landfills.
At Yongan Wetlands in Kaohsiung, a new natural gas plant is under consideration.
At Gaomei Wetlands in Taichung, over 20,000 kandelia were planted at the Qingshui discharge outlet in 1997. The rapidly growing kandelia subsequently blocked the flow of the outlet and dramatically changed the ecological system of the area.

The wetlands are home to grey herons as well as many other wild birds. Now, because of the gradual deterioration of the environment, the number of species has been significantly reduced. Many animals can no longer be easily observed in the wild.

When can we make humans realize that maintaining the ecosystem is essential for making our own lives better too?

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