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Bird

Least Bittern

Ixobrychus exilis

A summer resident that nests in Virginia. Found in 118 of 133 counties and cities, across 9 habitats.

Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
118 of 133 counties and cities
Habitats
9

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Summer
Nesting
Nests here
Range
118 of 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
SummerWinterAtlantic 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
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.

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.

SummerWinterSouth-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

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 (39)

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

  • Open Water (Aquaculture) Summer and winter.
  • North Pacific Hypermaritime Shrub and Herbaceous Headland Summer and winter, only within 500 m of water.
  • Acadian Salt Marsh and Estuary Systems Summer and winter.
  • 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.
  • Temperate Pacific Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh 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.
  • Laurentian-Acadian Swamp Systems Summer and winter.
  • North Pacific Shrub Swamp Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Laurentian-Acadian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • North Pacific Intertidal Freshwater Wetland Summer and winter.
  • North American Arid West Emergent Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Temperate Pacific Freshwater Emergent Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Great Lakes Freshwater Estuary and Delta Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Northern Great Lakes Coastal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
  • Laurentian-Acadian Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Rocky Mountain Subalpine-Montane Fen Summer and winter.
  • Mediterranean California Subalpine-Montane Fen Summer and winter.
  • Mediterranean California Serpentine Fen Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Open Freshwater Depression Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern 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.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • North American Warm Desert Lower Montane Riparian Woodland and Shrubland Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Summer: nests here, in 118 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 364

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

Wildlife 249

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