Doomed Newport Beach tree housing great blue heron chicks saved for now, but their future is up in the air

A tree near the Balboa Branch Library slated for removal will stay there a while longer as some great blue herons and their offspring call it home. The reprieve is expected to last at least until mid-April, according to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center.

Newport Beach city spokesman John Pope said the tree closest to the library’s parking lot was scheduled to be removed on Friday, as it has severe internal decay. But city workers noticed avian activity in the tree’s boughs and noticed a few birds had come to use some preexisting nests. After seeing eggs in those nests, staff reached out to wildlife agencies.

“This is an important issue for us and we very carefully monitor the activity in the nests,” said Pope, adding that the tree will remain standing at least through the end of the birds’ nesting season this spring.

An adult great blue heron feeds its young in the tree closest to the Balboa Branch Library’s parking lot.

(Courtesy of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center)

But Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center executive director Debbie McGuire said she saw city staff removing some empty nests Monday morning. That action, she said, could dissuade the adult herons from returning.

Nesting birds are very sensitive to human disturbance and can fully abandon a nest, their eggs and young because of human presence or noise, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“Since this is an active rookery site, they disturbed all of the other nesting birds in that tree,” McGuire said, adding that she’s since reached out to the federal and state Fish and Wildlife departments on the issue. “The city went up in a cherry picker before I arrived and removed one nest they claim had no eggs in it. But, by doing that, they risk flushing the parents in the other active nests away.”

Pope later confirmed her account but noted that only one or two empty nests were removed in an effort to prevent the timeline for removal from being extended. McGuire said most of the adult birds appeared Tuesday to have returned to their nests.

A Great Blue Heron prepares to take flight from a trimmed Ficus tree near the Balboa Branch Library.

(Courtesy of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center)

Most bird nests are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which prohibits people from disturbing nests with birds or eggs in them without a permit. Empty or abandoned nests can be removed, but that is often only after nesting season has ended. The state has several other provisions that protect birds and their nests as well.

Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division said Tuesday in an email that the department could not comment on what is now an active investigation as to whether or not the city of Newport Beach has violated California Fish and Game Code 3503, which prohibits the taking, possession or destruction of bird nests unnecessarily.

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