Vancouver's Stanley Park Herons Go Live On A Webcam

The public will be able to get up close and personal with Stanley Park's herons when the Vancouver Park Board launches a webcam to stream their lives today at 10 a.m. PT.

The park is home to one of North America's largest urban heron colonies and the camera will take viewers right inside their nests in the trees near the park board's head office at 2099 Beach Avenue.

The webcam will broadcast the long-legged Pacific great blue herons as they go about their daily lives — courting, mating, laying eggs and hatching in early April.

Heron cam viewers can ask an expert about the birds on Twitter at #herontalk.

Last year the heron colony had 116 nests and produced 131 fledgling herons. Herons have been nesting in the park since at least 1921.

There are about 4,000 to 5,000 herons in Canada and the Pacific great blue heron has been designated a "special concern" under the Species at Risk Act.