Yes, a long legged water bird. Whats the proper name?☺

i think its a kingfisher

Kingfisher is what we call em

Looks like the Great Blue Herons we have here - https://pixabay.com/photos/great-blue-heron-nature-bird-744257/

You have to be really careful releasing them from a beaver snare. That beak is wicked.

Maybe a great blue heron, hard to tell size.

Great blue heron

Looks like a blue heron.

definitly not a kingfisher kingfishers fly and dive into the water for food that bird is a wading bird like a heron could be a blue heron but hard to tell

Great blue heron they are very common in the midwest.

Great Blue, be careful spooking them at close range they tend to crap as they go.

Blue Heron

Leg bones make good pipe stems

Great Blue Heron.

At first I expected to see what the southerners call a snake bird....the Anhinga .

Definitely an Oh No bird..Three foot legs, four foot testicles. Yells "Oh No" every time it comes in for a landing.

Shag poke

this

Thanks guys. This is in Florida.

Great Blues are in FLA.

There are several other species of heron there as well but this pic looks like so many have guessed.

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They been called that all my life.

Known as a blue heron up here in BC, and as Paul stated be carful releasing them from a trap that beak is wicked.

That's old school. Haven't heard that in quite a while.

Great blue heron for sure.

Never heard anyone ever call a heron a shite poke. That is a common name for the least bittern or slough pump.

Agreed
Yours is a GBH
Great Blues are very common here.

Here's a picture of a King Fisher.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=king+...E393224DB4260C9B33&FORM=QBLH&sp=

And here Is a picture of a Bittern

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Bittern/id

its the stork....congratulations!!!

I've heard them called that here on occasion.

Blue Heron, saw one eat 2 hatches of baby mallards on my pond this year. To many of them, they will spear a dog in the eye with that beak.

blue heron I had one in a 110 one time don't want to have another one.

My father's family has always called them -t stringers, replace the c with an s. Claimed because of the way they protect their nest and young. A pretty messy affair if you've ventured too near.

My dad used to call them a shy poke. Don't know where he got the name. He was not an ornithologist.

FL has a white version of the great blue. Easily confused with the many other white herons and egrets in FL.

The common name here is s -taquarts, after their preflight ritual.

blue heron.

My grandpaw called them s -epoke. "Squirts a stream as long as a boat when he takes off, he does."

Experience speaks truthfully here now.

Great blue heron, very common in Nebraska.

Frog sticker. I've also seen one puke a bluegill after being surprised.

Yep, Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). My mother always called them a Shitepoke too. *hit-stringer was a common nickname here as well. As Warrior stated, Florida does, indeed, have a white version called, aptly, a Great White Heron. They are most common around Florida Bay in the Everglades. When I was a younger fellow they were considered a separate specie, now those bird nerds say they are simply a color morph of a regular Great Blue.

About 15 years ago the All Purpose Boy and I were bowfishing one of the canals off Houghton Lake, not far from home. We saw a Great Blue Heron struggling along shore a short ways ahead of us. As we got up to the poor beast we found it was fighting to escape from a good sized snapping turtle. The turtle had it square by the Taint. My boy reached in a grabbed the turtle by the tail, and when he lifted it from the water it was left with a mouth full of taint feathers and the heron crawled weakly off into the bushes. That bird wouldn't have survived had we not come along. I sorta felt sorry for the turtle as well.

We used to kill all the perch we caught and throw them out of the boat while panfishing...the Blue herons would eat them all.

That’s just one of a catfish farmers worst nightmares.

Any pond owner too. I've had trouble with them for many years. Folks might be surprised how big of a fish they can eat.

My cousin used to call them "Slough Pumpers". It's definitely a Blue Heron.

They aren't worth eating. They taste slightly better than hawk but lack the juicyness/flavor of horned owl.

Taste about the same as a merganser. Don’t care for either!!

I seen one eat a soft-shell turtle one time it, looked like a dinner plate going down that long skinny neck.

They about cleaned out the panfish and crappie bass in my smaller pond. They eat the frogs too. I send the dogs after them when I see them.

we call them George birds

#1ls as well. Who’d a thought that would hold one of those. I almost lost an eye. Turns out there’s a difference between cowering, and coiling! Lmao

This is one I photographed in Florida with a American eel. They can be very hard on the baby duck populations.

Be aware , yes the beak is a good weapon but the aim is what gets you. They instinctively go for your eyes. To blind you or at least mess up your vision is a very effective strategy.
I had to remove one GBH coiled up in fishing line 5ft above the water as I was assisting a game officer. First thing I grabbed was it's upper neck to control it. Safety glasses or a face shield would be a good thing to wear getting near one like I did.

Lol most of Maine does.

They taste like a cross between an eagle and a snowy egret . Nothing like chicken.

Great Blue Heron ... in Ohio we always called the Bittern a Shite Poke...

Garry-

Like the boss said.

Neighbor told me they were protected, I beg to differ.

Also called a gooney bird in this neck of the prarie! Was trapping coon on the river with a friend, He had a set that he couldn't keep them out of. Three in three days, his nickname after that was "birdman"!

My Grandpa used to call them "Cream S...ers" because he said when they took off, they would drop a quart of cream.

We used to use a Heron decoy when duck hunting in the marsh. It was used as a confidence decoy as a heron is usually one of the first things to take off when they see something they don't like. If they are still around, other birds seem to think everything is ok.