Rate of Decline: 54 percent in 40 years
Global Population: 150,000
Continental Population: 150,000 now, 330,000 40 years ago
Watch List Status: 
Appearance: Adults are dark blue with a light blue bill that has a black tip. Immature birds are all white, and therefore difficult to tell from egrets (especially snowy egret), but look for paler face, legs, and feet.
Vocalization: Not very vocal, except during courtship. During aggressive encounters, a loud nasal
"skaa" call.
Listen (© Lang Elliot, Nature Sound Studio).
Habitat: Nests in mixed-species colonies in woody vegetation usually on islands or in wetlands. Forages in a wide variety of shallow waters and wetlands, including fresh and saltwater.
Range: Breeds in the southeastern United States, Bahamas, Cuba, and most of the coast of Mexico. Winters more coastally in the United States; winter distribution extends throughout Central America.
Feeding: An opportunistic feeder that consumes a variety of small fish, amphibians, and invertebrates (especially crustaceans) in freshwater and marine-estuarine wetlands. Usually hunts in a secretive and solitary manner. Unlike most day-herons, the Little Blue Heron forages using a systematic, slow walk…peer…walk approach in shallow water.
Reproduction: In comparison with other herons, the Little Blue Heron has few courtship behaviors. Nests are generally located in natural wetland habitat, although artificial sites are sometimes used. The male gathers nesting materials, which can include material from pond cypresses, black mangroves, poison ivy, and cattails, and the female builds the nest. Only produces one brood per year, and the range for clutch size is 1-6 eggs (usually 3 or 4). After hatching, chicks mostly lie sleeping in the nest, but are capable of raising their heads.
Conservation Issues & Efforts:
- Threats:
The long-term success of these herons is limited mostly by their food supply. They forage for fish, crustaceans, and frogs in shallow water in saline, brackish, and freshwater habitats, areas that are very vulnerable to declines in water quality.
- Outlook:
Little Blue Herons require quality shallow water habitats primarily in the southeastern United States, so their fate depends on our protecting the quality and quantity of these habitats.
What Can You Do:
- Preserve Farmlands
Promote strong conservation provisions in the federal farm bill, especially the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to keep marginal farmlands idle and supports millions of acres of good bird habitat. Contact your county’s office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or Farm Service Agency (FSA) to find out how to increase the number of acres devoted to helping birds dependent on farmlands.
- Conserve Wetlands
Support wetlands conservation programs such as the Clean Water Act, North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), and Farm Bill conservation programs such as the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and “swampbuster” (the rule that restricts wetlands from being converted to agriculture). Encourage governments at all levels to enact and enforce wetlands protection and water quality laws and regulations.
- Patrol Beaches
Join beach watches to look for oiled birds or other signs of coastal pollution. Lobby local, state, and federal officials to maintain wildlife-friendly beaches and clean coastal waters.
For more Information:
References:
Kaufman, Kenn. Guía de campo a las aves de Norteamérica. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
Rodgers, J.A., Jr. and H.T. Smith (1995). Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea). The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences and Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists’ Union. Retrieved from The Birds of North America Online database: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/BNA/account/Little_Blue_Heron/
