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Bird

Great Blue Heron

Ardea herodias

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in all 133 counties and cities, across 15 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
15

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
15
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 15

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

1 of 15

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.

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense low pocosin
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin; Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and BaygallDense low pocosin. Shown: Shaken Creek Preserve, Pender and Onslow Counties, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Dense low pocosin, Robert Thornhill, undated. CC BY 4.0. 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
SummerWinterAtlantic 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.

Streams, rivers and their banks

Watauga Falls
SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems; South-Central Interior Small Stream and RiparianNamed place / source context. Shown: Watauga Falls, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Watauga Falls, Illustrator/engraver not confidently attributed; reproduced in Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies (1883), 1883. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier; Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression SwampNamed place / source context. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. 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.

SummerWinter

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

Floodplain and bottomland forests

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; Central Appalachian Floodplain - Forest Modifier; Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier; South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Forest Modifier; Southern Piedmont Large Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems; Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems; Southern Piedmont Small Floodplain and Riparian Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest; South-Central Interior Small Stream and Riparian; South-Central Interior Large Floodplain

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

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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier

Mountain bogs and fens

Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.

SummerWinter

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.

SummerWinterOnly within 1,000 m of water.Pasture/Hay
Other habitats in its models (70)

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

  • Developed, Low Intensity Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Upper Texas Coast Beach Summer and winter.
  • Louisiana Beach Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Summer and winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Summer and winter.
  • Texas Coastal Bend Beach Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Chenier and Upper Texas Coastal Fringe Forest and Woodland Summer, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Winter, only within 60 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter.
  • Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Summer and winter, only within 1,000 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal 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 Bay/Gum 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.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Summer and winter.
  • Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
  • Tamaulipan Riparian Systems Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
  • Cumberland Riverscour Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • Red River Large Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
  • Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer and winter.
  • The model applies distance limits to open and flowing water while retaining wet vegetation without that interior limit.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in all 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 689

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

Wildlife 261

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