Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Pelecaniformes > Ardeidae > Egretta > Egretta caerulea

Egretta caerulea (Little Blue Heron)

Synonyms: Ardea caerulea (homotypic); Florida caerulea; Florida caerulea caerulea; Hydranassa caerulea
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The little blue heron (Egretta caerulea) is a small heron. It breeds in the Gulf states of the US, through Central America and the Caribbean south to Peru and Uruguay. It is a resident breeder in most of its range, but some northern breeders migrate to the southeastern US or beyond in winter. There is post-breeding dispersal to well north of the nesting range, as far as the Canada–US border.
View Wikipedia Record: Egretta caerulea

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
5
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
26
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 10.7607
EDGE Score: 2.46477
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  339 grams
Birth Weight [3]  25 grams
Female Weight [6]  315 grams
Male Weight [6]  364 grams
Weight Dimorphism [6]  15.6 %
Breeding Habitat [2]  Wetlands
Wintering Geography [2]  Widespread
Wintering Habitat [2]  Wetlands, Coastal saltmarshes, Agricultural
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Ectothermic [4]  30 %
Diet - Fish [4]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  60 %
Forages - Water Surface [4]  100 %
Clutch Size [5]  4
Clutches / Year [5]  1
Fledging [1]  30 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  330,000
Incubation [5]  23 days
Mating System [3]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [5]  14 years
Migration [7]  Intercontinental
Snout to Vent Length [1]  27 inches (69 cm)
Wing Span [8]  39 inches (1 m)
Female Maturity [5]  1 year
Male Maturity [5]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (132)

Ecosystems

Important Bird Areas

Name Location  IBA Criteria   Website   Climate   Land Use 
Bluefields Bay and adjacent landscape Nicaragua A1, A2
Caroni Swamp Trinidad and Tobago A4i, A4iii  
Nicoya Gulf mangroves and coastal areas Costa Rica A1, A4i, A4iii

Biodiversity Hotspots

Prey / Diet

Enneacanthus gloriosus (Bluespotted sunfish)[8]
Lepomis macrochirus (Bluegill)[8]
Lepomis microlophus (Redear sunfish)[8]
Palaemon paludosus (riverine grass shrimp)[8]
Pomoxis nigromaculatus (Strawberry bass)[8]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Agkistrodon piscivorus (conanti)1
Ardea herodias (Great Blue Heron)1
Chelydra serpentina (Common Snapping Turtle)1
Larus delawarensis (Ring-billed Gull)1
Megaceryle alcyon (Belted Kingfisher)1

Predators

Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald Eagle)[9]
Spizaetus ornatus (Ornate Hawk-Eagle)[8]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 6Hartman, FA 1955. Heart weight in birds. Condor 57: 221-238
♦ 7Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 8del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0