Bird
Little Blue Heron
Egretta caerulea
Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in all 64 parishes, across 8 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 8

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 8
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 8
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
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.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
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.
Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.
Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.
Other habitats in its models (54)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
- South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
- Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter.
- Florida Dry Prairie Winter, only within 250 m of water.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Winter, only within 250 m of water.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Mangrove Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
- South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
- South Florida Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain 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.
- Cumberland Riverscour Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Year-round: nests here, in 34 of 64 parishes.
- Summer: nests here, in 45 of 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 194
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- TitiCyrilla racemiflora
- Virginia Chain-fernAnchistea virginica
- ButtonbushCephalanthus occidentalis
- Virginia SweetspireItea virginica
- PondberryLindera melissifolia
- SweetgumLiquidambar styraciflua
- Shining FetterbushLyonia lucida
- Macranthera flammeaMacranthera flammea
- Sweetbay MagnoliaMagnolia virginiana
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Swamp TupeloNyssa biflora
- Pinus elliottii var. elliottiiPinus elliottii var. elliottii
- Pond CypressTaxodium ascendens
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
- Scaleleaf False FoxgloveAgalinis aphylla
- Longleaf Three-awnAristida palustris
- Trumpet-creeperCampsis radicans
- Southern Waxy SedgeCarex glaucescens
- Coastal Sweet-pepperbushClethra alnifolia
- Cliftonia monophyllaCliftonia monophylla
- Slim SpikerushEleocharis elongata
- Pumpkin AshFraxinus profunda
- Peelbark St. John's-wortHypericum fasciculatum
- InkberryIlex glabra
Wildlife 266
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Purple GallinulePorphyrio martinica
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- American CootFulica americana
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Double-crested CormorantPhalacrocorax auritus
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Hooded MerganserLophodytes cucullatus
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Lesser ScaupAythya affinis
- Long-billed DowitcherLimnodromus scolopaceus
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Little Blue Heron
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)










































