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Little Blue Heron

Egretta caeruleaOrder: CICONIIFORMESFamily: Bitterns, Herons and Egrets (Ardeidae)

Little Blue Heron Portrait_2
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General

Little Blue Heron: Medium-sized heron with slate-gray body and purple-blue head and neck. Eyes are yellow and bill is dark gray with black tip. Legs and feet are dark. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is initially all white, becoming peppered with dark gray as it molts to adult plumage.

Range and Habitat

Little Blue Heron: Found along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida, but is most abundant along the Gulf of Mexico; also found in the West Indies and along both Mexican coasts south to South America. Prefers freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, marshes, swamps, and lagoons; sometimes found on marine coastlines.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"eh-oo-ah-eh-eh"

Interesting Facts

 Because the Little Blue Heron does not bear long showy plumes in breeding adult plumage, it largely escaped serious population declines from feather hunting for the millinery trade.

 The Snowy Egret tolerates the close proximity of white juveniles more than that of dark adults.

 A white juvenile catches more fish in the company of Snowy Egrets than when alone.

 A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "hedge", "pose", "rookery", and "scattering" of herons."



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Little Blue Heron
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Herons and Egrets (Ardeidae)_blue
Species Egretta caerulea
Length24 - 29 Inches
Wingspan40.5 Inches

Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron: Medium heron with slate-gray body and purple-blue head and neck. Eyes are yellow and bill is dark gray with black tip. Legs and feet are dark. The only dark heron species in North America in which the juvenile is white. Feeds on small crustaceans, vertebrates, and large insects.

● Song: "eh-oo-ah-eh-eh"

● Foraging & Feeding: Little Blue Heron: Diet consists of fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, turtles, and crustaceans such as fiddler crabs, crayfish, and shrimp, aquatic insects, and spiders. When swamps and marshes become dry, it eats grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, and other grassland insects; forages by wading in shallow water.

● Breeding & nesting: Little Blue Heron: One to six pale blue-green eggs are laid in a flimsy stick nest, usually built 3 to 15 feet above the ground or water. Eggs are incubated for 22 to 24 days by both parents.

● Similar species: Little Blue Heron: Reddish Egret is much larger and heavier-billed, has paler, shaggier neck, and blue-gray legs. Juvenile Snowy Egret has black legs and yellow feet.

Flight Pattern

Direct flight with steady quick wing beats.
Little Blue Heron Body Illustration_2
● Range & Habitat: Little Blue Heron: Found along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida, but is most abundant along the Gulf of Mexico; also found in the West Indies and along both Mexican coasts south to South America. Prefers freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, marshes, swamps, and lagoons; sometimes found on marine coastlines.
BreedingMonogamous, Colonial
PopulationIncreasing, Expanding
MigrationMigratory
Weight12.9 Ounces