This is a great Blue Heron done in haida/coast salish style and is often called the watcher by Coast Salish tribes. Before the European contact in the Pacific Northwest coast wars were waged between many of the different tribes so there was always the threat of a village being raided. Most Coast Salish villages are located at a mouth of a salmon bearing river which also happens to be a habitat for blue herons so villages would have these birds located outside in the water. The herons would act as an alarm system and start flying and squawking if a war canoe or anything else was approaching the village. I decided to draw this because the other day I witnessed this happened while I was collecting water samples of the river for my work and as soon as the heron seen me it turned around flew the opposite way and warned all the other animals that a human was approaching the river.

My tribe T’Sou-ke have a song to honor this bird for thier help in the protection of our villages over the many years.