Bird

Little Blue Heron

Egretta caerulea

Lives in Mississippi all year and nests here. Found in all 82 counties, across 14 habitats.

Here: All year
Nesting: Nests here
Range: All 82 counties
Habitats: 14

Male Little Blue Heron, whole bird — **Male**. no rights reserved. CC0. iNaturalist photo 264861880. iNaturalist large derivative; no local crop or retouch.

At a glance

Group: Birds
Here: All year
Nesting: Nests here
Range: All 82 counties
Habitats: 14
Habitat models: Summer, Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Mississippi 14

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 14

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier; Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall; East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp; Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress DomeJoseph Rusling Meeker, The Land of Evangeline (1874): moss-hung trees over a still bayou in Louisiana swamp forest. Regional view: the painting does not name the exact site. Shown: Louisiana bayou country (Meeker, The Land of Evangeline, 1874), a neighboring state.The Land of Evangeline, Joseph Rusling Meeker, 1874. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation; East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland; 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

Freshwater marshes

Open, herb-covered wetlands with fresh, non-tidal water.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier

Pine savannas

Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.

WinterEast Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie

Ponds, lakes and their shores

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

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterMississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh

Seeps and springs

Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall

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)

Hardwood and oak flatwoods

Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.

WinterOnly within 250 m of water.East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier

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

Prairies and grasslands

Open, grass-dominated places kept open by fire, grazing or thin soil, from tallgrass prairie to Piedmont prairies.

WinterOnly within 250 m of water.East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier; East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland

Other habitats in its models (44)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Mississippi. Those recorded in Mississippi first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (29)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter.
Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
Cumberland Riverscour Summer and winter.
Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Florida Dry Prairie Winter, only within 250 m of water.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
South Florida Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
South Florida Mangrove Swamp Summer and winter.
South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.

Northeast (3)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.

Land cover and other classes (12)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer and winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Mississippi

Year-round: nests here, in 8 of 82 counties.
Migratory: does not nest here, in 34 of 82 counties.
Summer: nests here, in 62 of 82 counties.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Mississippi, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.