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Bird

American Bittern

Botaurus lentiginosus

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 9 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
9

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
9
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 9

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

1 of 9

Coastal dunes and beaches

Core Banks dunes, June 2013
SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond
SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh); Atlantic Coastal Plain Large Natural LakeshoreRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Salt and brackish marshes

Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge
WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. Source record.

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.

Winter

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 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 Northern Fresh and Oligohaline 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)

Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground

Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.

WinterOnly within 500 m of water.Pasture/Hay; Disturbed/Successional - Grass/Forb Regeneration; Utility Swath - Herbaceous; Ruderal Upland - Old Field
Other habitats in its models (45)

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

  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Heathland and Grassland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Calcareous Prairie Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Dune and Maritime Grassland Winter.
  • Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dune and Swale Winter.
  • Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
  • South Texas Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
  • Recently Logged Areas Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Recently Burned Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Recently Burned Forest Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Recently Burned Grassland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland and Forbland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Modified/Managed Southern Tall Grassland Winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
  • Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in 71 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Migratory: does not nest here, in 52 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 25 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Summer: nests here, in 22 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 117

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Virginia. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 247

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

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

Sources