This one was literally 8 ft away and not scared at all. I had to adjust my zoom to fit the bird into the frame.
Camera Model Name : ILCE-7M4
Date/Time Original : 2023:02:27 09:40:32
Image Size : 7008×4672
Focal Length : 444.0 mm
Shutter Speed : 1/800
Aperture : 6.3
ISO : 400
Saru's photo blog 
Lovely shot! The eye is nice and sharp!
If you have the space in the original photo, I think it would look better if we saw more of the photo on the left. Take off space on the right too. So the heron has somewhere to look into. It would also fill out the tree or bush that’s over there as the branch coming down from the top-left is distracting. Try and get the heron’s head into the middle of the photo.
Thanks. I will try your suggestion. I was trying to avoid some sun reflection from the water on this.