AUGUSTA — Students and teachers around Maine are capturing and tagging great blue herons to learn more about the big birds and where they live.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is working with students and teachers at schools across the state.

The students will be looking for foraging herons in their areas and then catching fish in traps to use as bait to lure the birds back. Researchers with the wildlife department will then capture the birds and tag each with a GPS transmitter to monitor movements.

The wildlife department says it will be able to follow the herons for several years and gather new information about them. The bird is listed as a “species of special concern” in Maine due to a decline in nesting pairs on coastal islands.