Home/Species/ Little Blue Heron

Egretta caerulea

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Little Blue Heron

G5Secure Found in 10 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →

G5SecureGlobal Rank

Least concernIUCN

Identity

Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106018

Element CodeABNGA06040

Record TypeSPECIES

ClassificationSpecies

Classification StatusStandard

Name CategoryVertebrate Animal

IUCNLeast concern

Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

KingdomAnimalia

PhylumCraniata

ClassAves

OrderPelecaniformes

FamilyArdeidae

GenusEgretta

Synonyms

Florida caerulea

Other Common Names

Aigrette bleue (FR) Garça-Azul (PT) Garceta Azul, Garza Azul (ES) little blue heron (EN)

Concept Reference

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.

Taxonomic Comments

Often placed in monotypic genus florida (AOU 1983).

Conservation Status

Rank MethodExpertise without calculation

Review Date2016-04-07

Change Date1996-11-20

Edition Date1994-12-22

Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

Rank Reasons

Very large range. Globally secure, but regional trends are unknown for most areas.

Range Extent Comments

BREEDS: southern California (casually, since 1979), southern Sonora, southeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, central Oklahoma, central Kansas, southwestern Kentucky, southern Georgia, and Atlantic coast north to Maine, south along both coasts of Mexico and Middle America, to the West Indies and South America (Colombia, Venezuela, and Guianas west of Andes to central Peru and east of Andes to eastern Peru, central Brazil, and Uruguay; sometimes in central Minnesota. See Spendelow and Patton (1988) for information on distribution and abundance of coastal U.S. breeding populations. NORTHERN WINTER: north to southern Baja California, southern Sonora, Gulf Coast, and Virginia, south through most of the breeding range. In the U.S., the highest winter densities occur in southern Louisiana bayous, around the mouth of the Mississippi River, especially the Delta NWR, and to a much lesser extent in Florida (Root 1988). Wanders irregularly outside usual range, especially after breeding. Accidental or casual in Hawaii.

Threat Impact Comments

Vulnerable to disturbance and development of nesting and foraging areas; natural weather phenomena and shoreline dynamics sometimes have adverse effects (Byrd and Johnston 1991).

Ecology & Habitat

Description

See Kaufman (1991, Am. Birds 45:330-333) for detailed information on identification.

Habitat

Marshes, ponds, lakes, meadows, mudflats, lagoons, streams, mangrove lagoons, and other bodies of calm shallow water; primarily in freshwater habitats.

Nests in trees and shrubs to about 4 m above ground or water, primarily in freshwater situations; usually in mangroves in the tropics. Often nests with other herons, egrets, and/or ibises.

Ecology

Usually alone or in scattered 2s or 3s (Hilty and Brown 1986). Forages singly, congregates to roost or loaf (Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Reproduction

Clutch size is 3-6 (usually 4-5) in north, 2-4 in Central America. Incubation lasts 22-24 days, by both sexes. Young are tended by both parents, can leave nest by 12 days, fledge within 4 weeks.

Palustrine Habitats

HERBACEOUS WETLANDSCRUB-SHRUB WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian

Other Nations (1)

United StatesN5B,N5N

Province	Rank	Native
Maryland	S3B	Yes
New York	S2	Yes
New Hampshire	SNA	Yes
Oklahoma	SNRB	Yes
Ohio	S1	Yes
Georgia	S3	Yes
Michigan	SNRN	Yes
Minnesota	SNA	Yes
Missouri	S2	Yes
District of Columbia	S3N	Yes
South Carolina	S2	Yes
Connecticut	S1B	Yes
New Mexico	S1B,S4N	Yes
Indiana	SNA	Yes
Delaware	S1B	Yes
Rhode Island	S1B,S2N	Yes
Texas	S5B	Yes
Mississippi	S2B,S2N	Yes
Illinois	S1	Yes
Arizona	S1N	Yes
North Carolina	S3B,S3N	Yes
West Virginia	SNA	Yes
Louisiana	S3N,S4B	Yes
Kansas	S3B	Yes
Alabama	S3N,S4B	Yes
Pennsylvania	S2M	Yes
Colorado	SNA	Yes
New Jersey	S3B,S3N	Yes
Virginia	S1B,S3N	Yes
Nebraska	SNRN	Yes
South Dakota	S1B	Yes
Kentucky	S1B	Yes
Iowa	S2N	Yes
Arkansas	S2B	Yes
Maine	S1B	Yes
California	SNR	Yes
Florida	S4	Yes
Tennessee	S2B,S3N	Yes
Massachusetts	S1B,S3N	Yes

Roadless Areas (10)

Arkansas (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Bear Mountain	Ouachita National Forest	1,910

Florida (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Alexander Springs Creek	Ocala National Forest	2,954

Idaho (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Bear Creek	Caribou-Targhee National Forest	118,582

Illinois (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Ripple Hollow	Shawnee National Forest	3,788

Mississippi (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Sandy Creek Rare Ii Area	Homochitto National Forest	2,620

Missouri (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Irish Rare II Study Area	Mark Twain National Forest	1,226

North Carolina (2)

Area	Forest	Acres
Catfish Lake North	Croatan National Forest	11,299
Tusquitee Bald	Nantahala National Forest	13,670

Oregon (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Eagle	Mt. Hood National Forest	16,841

Puerto Rico (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Mameyes Area	Caribbean National Forest	11,150

References (28)

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American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in <i>The Auk</i>]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Bent, A. C. 1926. Life histories of North American marsh birds. Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. 135.
BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt. 2000. A field checklist of the birds of Guyana. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Byrd, M. A., and D. W. Johnston. 1991. Birds. Pages 477-537 in K. Terwilliger, coordinator. Virginia's endangered species: proceedings of a symposium. McDonald and Woodward Publ. Co., Blacksburg, Virginia.
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Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Olmos, F. and R. Silva e Silva. 2002. Breeding biology of the Little Blue Heron (<i>Egretta caerulea</i>) in southeastern Brazil. Ornitologia Neotropical 13:17-30.
Palmer, R. S. (editor). 1962. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 1. Loons through flamingos. Yale University Press, New Haven. 567 pp.
Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
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Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
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