Tag Archives: Calico Little Blue Heron

Which Bird is the Little Blue Heron?

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Can you tell which photo is of a Little Blue Heron?

If you thought all three images are Little Blue Herons, you are correct!

Friends often tell me about the “egrets” they are seeing at our local ponds. You would think yes, a small white heron is a Snowy Egret but look more closely.  Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons are about the same size but a quick way to differentiate the two is that Snowy Egrets  sport unmistakeable bright cadmium yellow feet whereas the legs and feet of a first hatch year Little Blue Heron are an even yellowish-grayish-greenish. Snowy Egrets also have yellow lores at the base of their bills that the Little Blues lack (see gallery at the bottom of the page).

In the gallery at the top of the page, the white bird is a first hatch year Little Blue; the calico patterned bird is a second year Little Blue transitioning from white to blue plumage; and the last photo is the adult Little Blue Heron with its body feathers a beautiful deep slate blue and neck feathers a rich magenta. Although the adult plumages of both birds are entirely different, the two species are closely related members of the genus Egretta.

 

You can also tell the difference by how the herons forage. Little Blues when feeding at our local ponds hunt in a stealthy manner. They stride slowly through the mud and hold very still, then strike swiftly for the fish, frog, dragonfly, or other insect. Little Blue Herons have another method of foraging called “aerial hunting.” The LBH flies out over the water looking for frogs. It will hover briefly overhead before plunging into the water to grab its prey.

Snowy Egrets appear much more excited when hunting. They animatedly run back and forth, and with their bright yellow feet, stir up the sand and mud to flush out prey. This hunting strategy is called “foot stirring.”

Watch as the Little Blue Heron gets an easy meal when the dragonfly perches on its leg!

A gallery of Snowy Egrets to compare the differences.

 

 

LA LUNA, THE CALICO BLUE HERON

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If you have seen a congregation of white herons at Niles Pond, chances are they were not Snowy Egrets or Great White Egrets, but Little Blue Herons.

During the summer of 2022, we had an extraordinary wildlife event unfolding at Niles Pond. In an average year we only see a handful, if any, Little Blue Herons at Niles. Amazingly, on any given evening in August of this year, I counted at a minimum two dozen; one especially astonishing evening’s count totaled more than 65!

Little Blue Herons are an average-sized wading bird, smaller than Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets but larger than Little Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons.

Little Blues in their first hatch summer are often confused with Snowy Egrets because they are similar in size and color. A Little Blue Heron, despite its name, is mostly pure white its first hatch summer (the wings are tipped in slate gray).  Their bills are pale greyish blue at the base and black at the tip, with yellowy-green legs.By its third summer, Little Blue adults have attained the two-toned rich moody blue body plumage and violet head and neck feathers.

It’s the Little Blue’s second hatch year, in-between juvenile and adult, when it shows a lovely bi-color, calico pattern that is the most enchanting. The feather patterning is wonderfully varied as the bird is losing its white feathers and gaining its blue and violet feathers. The patterning is so interesting, on one of our many visits to check on the herons, Charlotte dubbed the Niles Pond calico, La Luna.

Little Blue Herons – first hatch summer

Little Blue Heron – second summer (Luna)

Little Blue Heron – adult

Little Blue Heron adult and first hatch summer juvenile

The Little Blue Herons have begun to disperse and I have not seen Luna in over a week. They will begin migrating soon. I am so inspired by the presence of Luna and her relations at Niles Pond I am creating a short film about New England pond ecology, starring Luna!

Food for thought – Because of the drought, the water level at Niles has been lower than usual. The lower water level however apparently did not effect the American Bull frog population and that is what the Little Blues have been feasting on all summer. By feasting, I literally mean feasting. In our region, Little Blue Herons are “frog specialists.” During the first light of day, I witnessed a Little Blue Heron catch four American Bullfrogs, either an adult, froglet, or tadpole. They hunt all day long, from sunrise until sunset.  If at a bare minimum, a typical LBH ate 20 frogs a day times 60 herons that is a minimum 1200 frogs eaten daily over the course of the summer.

American Bullfrog

Here in New England, we are at the northern edge of the Little Blue Heron’s breeding range. Perhaps with global climate change the range will expand more northward, although Little Blue Herons are a species in decline due to loss of wetland habitat.

Luna in early summerSnowy Egret (yellow feet) in the foreground and Great Egret (yellow bill) in the background

Compare white Little Blue Heron first hatch summer to the Snowy Egret, with bright yellow feet and black legs and bill to the Great White Egret with the reverse markings, a bright yellow bill with black feet and legs.