Bird

Least Bittern

Ixobrychus exilis

Names as given by USGS GAP.

Year-round and summer in Florida, breeding, in the USGS range maps. Its habitat models include 11 habitats found here.

Seasons here: Year-round and summer
Breeding: Breeding
Range: 41 of 67 counties
Habitats: 11

Male Least Bittern, whole bird — **Male**. (c) Matt Felperin, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0. iNaturalist photo 133777840. Source-provided large resize; no crop or image edits.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Seasons in Florida: Year-round and summer
Breeding: Breeding
Counties in known range: 41 of 67
Habitat models: Summer, Winter

Where it lives

Southeast habitat models (USGS, 2001 land cover). The bird is not in every place a habitat occurs. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models Summer model Winter model

Habitats in Florida 11

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there. Shared habitat, not food.

1 of 11

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier; South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh; Floridian Highlands Freshwater MarshRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

SummerWinterAtlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

SummerWinter

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

SummerWinterCentral Florida Herbaceous Pondshore; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

SummerWinter

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerWinterFlorida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Mangrove swamps

Tidal forests and thickets of red, black and white mangrove along sheltered tropical and subtropical shores.

SummerWinter

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh; Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Other habitats in its models (32)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.

Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter
North Pacific Hypermaritime Shrub and Herbaceous Headland Summer and winter. Only within 500 m of water
Acadian Salt Marsh and Estuary Systems Summer and winter
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter
Temperate Pacific Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter
Laurentian-Acadian Swamp Systems Summer and winter
North Pacific Shrub Swamp Summer and winter
Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Systems Summer and winter
Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter
Laurentian-Acadian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter
North Pacific Intertidal Freshwater Wetland Summer and winter
North American Arid West Emergent Marsh Summer and winter
Temperate Pacific Freshwater Emergent Marsh Summer and winter
Great Lakes Freshwater Estuary and Delta Summer and winter
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter
Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter
Northern Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Summer and winter
Laurentian-Acadian Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter
Rocky Mountain Subalpine-Montane Fen Summer and winter
Mediterranean California Subalpine-Montane Fen Summer and winter
Mediterranean California Serpentine Fen Summer and winter
Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter
Western Great Plains Open Freshwater Depression Wetland Summer and winter
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter
South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter
North American Warm Desert Lower Montane Riparian Woodland and Shrubland Summer and winter
South-Central Interior Large Floodplain Summer and winter