Bird

Little Blue Heron

Egretta caerulea

Lives in North Carolina all year and nests here. Found in all 100 counties, across 10 habitats.

Here: All year
Nesting: Nests here
Range: All 100 counties
Habitats: 10

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 100 counties
Habitats: 10
Habitat models: Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in North Carolina 10

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

1 of 10

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / 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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier; Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland; Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

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

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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland; 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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh

Seeps and springs

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - 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)

Other habitats in its models (49)

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

Elsewhere in the South (32)

Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern 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.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp 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.
Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Winter.
Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal 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 Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall 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 (14)

East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Winter, only within 250 m of water.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Winter.
Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Summer and winter.
Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

Year-round: nests here, in 30 of 100 counties.
Migratory: does not nest here, in 81 of 100 counties.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, 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.