Little Blue Heron

Overview
Little Blue Heron: Medium heron with slate-gray body and purple-blue head and neck. Eyes are yellow and bill is dark gray with black tip. Legs and feet are dark. The only dark heron species in North America in which the juvenile is white. Feeds on small crustaceans, vertebrates, and large insects.

Range and Habitat
Little Blue Heron: Found along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida, but is most abundant along the Gulf of Mexico; also found in the West Indies and along both Mexican coasts south to South America. Prefers freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, marshes, swamps, and lagoons; sometimes found on marine coastlines.

The Little Blue Heron has a large range, estimated globally at 5,700,000 square kilometers. Native to the Americas and nearby island nations, this bird prefers forest, wetland, and marine ecosystems. The global population of this bird has not been precisely determined but does not show signs of decline that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Little Blue Heron is Least Concern.

INTERESTING FACTS
Because the Little Blue Heron does not bear long showy plumes in breeding adult plumage, it largely escaped serious population declines from feather hunting for the millinery trade. The Snowy Egret tolerates the close proximity of white juveniles more than that of dark adults. A white juvenile catches more fish in the company of Snowy Egrets than when alone. A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "hedge", "pose", "rookery", and "scattering" of herons."