(Credit: U. S. Geological Survey)

Little Blue Heron - Egretta caerulea

Identification Tips:

  1. Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 41 inches
  2. Sexes similar
  3. Medium-sized long-legged long-necked wader
  4. Usually holds neck in an "S" curve at rest and in flight
  5. Bill long and pointed
  6. Dull green legs

Adult alternate:

  1. Blue-gray black-tipped bill
  2. Blue-gray belly, back and wings
  3. Chestnut head and neck
  4. Shaggy neck plumes

Adult basic:

  1. Blue-gray black-tipped bill
  2. Head and neck blue-gray like body
  3. Lacks shaggy neck plumes

Immature:

  1. White body plumage
  2. Blue-gray tips to the outer primaries visible from below when bird is in flight
  3. Gray lores
  4. Black-tipped bill usually with blue-gray base, but occasionally yellow or flesh
  5. First spring or summer, immatures start gaining the adults' dark plumage. May be mottled with blue-gray & white.

Similar species:

Adults are similar only to Reddish Egret, which is much larger and bigger-billed, and has a paler reddish neck, shaggier neck, and head plumes and blue-gray legs. Immature Snowy Egrets are similar to immature Little Blues but have black legs with a yellow stripe up the back, yellow feet, and yellow lores, and lack the blue-gray primary tips, and, usually, lack the two-toned bill. Adult white morph Reddish Egrets can be similar to immature Little Blues but are much larger, have blue-gray legs, shaggy neck and head plumes and a pink base to the bill. Immature white morph Reddish Egrets can be separated by the larger bill, bluish legs, and lack of blue-gray primary tips.