Date 8 January 2014, 12:53:07
Author Micaela Villanueva Capdevielle
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garsa_en_laguna_de_rocha.jpg

The cocoi heron (Ardea cocoi) is a species of heron in the family Ardeidae. It is common and widespread throughout most of South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is a non-breeding visitor to Trinidad and Tobago and a vagrant to the Falkland Islands and Tristan da Cunha. Its natural habitats are rivers, swamps, and freshwater lakes. The cocoi heron is extremely similar to its North American and European counterparts, the great blue heron and grey heron, with which the cocoi heron forms a superspecies.
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Genus: Ardea
Species: Ardea cocoi Linnaeus, 1766