Little Blue Heron

Identification Tips:

• Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 41 inches
• Sexes similar
• Medium-sized long-legged long-necked wader
• Usually holds neck in an "S" curve at rest and in flight
• Bill long and pointed
• Dull green legs

Adult alternate: Blue-gray black-tipped bill Blue-gray belly, back and wings Chestnut head and neck Shaggy neck plumes	Adult basic: Blue-gray black-tipped bill Head and neck blue-gray like body Lacks shaggy neck plumes
Immature: White body plumage Blue-gray tips to the outer primaries visible from below when bird is in flight Gray lores Black-tipped bill usually with blue-gray base, but occasionally yellow or flesh In their first spring or first summer, immatures start gaining the adults' dark plumage and can be mottled with blue-gray and white	Range: Eastern US to Peru and Argentina Marshes, swamps, rice fields, ponds, shores migration route through Mississippi valley

Breeding Habitat: Wetland-openwater	Clutch Size: 3-5	Length of Incubation: 320-23 days
Days to Fledge: 42-49	Number of Broods: 1	Diet: aquatic invertebrates fish reptiles and amphibians