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Bird

Little Blue Heron

Egretta caerulea

Lives in Virginia all year and nests here. Found in 132 of 133 counties and cities, across 9 habitats.

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

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
132 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
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.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall; 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.

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)
Other habitats in its models (49)

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.
  • Southeast Florida Beach Winter.
  • South Florida Shell Hash Beach Winter.
  • Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Winter.
  • Southwest Florida Beach Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Summer and winter.
  • Florida Dry Prairie Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland 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.
  • 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 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.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh 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.
  • 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 Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Winter.
  • Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Cypress Dome Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome 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.
  • Cumberland Riverscour Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Winter, only within 250 m of water.

All habitats

Seasons in Virginia

  • Year-round: nests here, in 46 of 133 counties and cities.
  • Migratory: does not nest here, in 98 of 133 counties and cities.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 205

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

Wildlife 242

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