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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.

1 of 8

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic 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

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

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.

WinterMississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest; Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)

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)

Swamps

Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall; East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp; Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome

Pine flatwoods

Flat, sandy Coastal Plain pine woodlands, wetter than sandhills and denser than savannas.

WinterOnly within 250 m of water.East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier
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.

All habitats

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.

Wildlife 266

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources