Welcome to June everyone! Admittedly I am a bit behind – things are…hmmm…let’s go with “normal” for Intrigued…translated…running around like headless chickens trying to get everything that needs to be done between the runs. I naively thought there would be an abundance of time after I retired, nope! This month is especially demanding as it is the last month of hard training before the first ultra of the season scheduled for the first week of July (link here). Heat conditioning, hydration/nutrition validation and worst of all, 20+ mile brutal hill runs…my body can’t wait until taper. While I ice to keep the black and blue bruising out of my legs, will turn the post duties over to Brad to tell us about a different kind of blue.
…take it away Brad!
It’s not really an imposter, but the name for this nearly white bird doesn’t seem to fit very well. A little while ago I wrote about the great blue heron (link here). This one is about a smaller heron cousin: the little blue heron (Egretta caerulea), another +1. This is a juvenile version of the little blue heron. No, not a middle-school type of juvenile making fart jokes. I’m talking about the juvenile variety that doesn’t have its adult plumage yet. Contrary to what the name implies, the only thing blue on this little heron at this point is the end of its bill. For now. Its feathers will turn darker blue in its second year and look similar to a smaller version of the great blue heron. The only coloring kept from childhood into adulthood is the bill and greenish legs. The white feathers are replaced by a purple-maroon colored neck and a dark slate-blue-colored body. Until their darker adult plumage grows in, they are very easy to spot in their surroundings.
Hit the jump to read more about this incognito wader.
We spotted this little blue heron at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina on a warm day in February. (And by warm, I mean warm even by South Carolina standards for February. The predicted high temperatures while we were there approached 80F each day.) We were standing on one of the observation platforms near the causeway on a nice sunny morning. The little blue heron was standing motionless near the weeds at the edge of the brackish pond right next to the causeway.
The little blue heron is a wading bird. They move slowly and stately around the water looking for prey. Little blue herons hunt their prey while nearly motionless. They stand perfectly still above water while using their feet to slowly disturb prey hiding underwater.
At this stage of its development, there’s not much blue in our little blue heron. For juveniles, the blue on their bill is obvious, as are the greenish legs. Juveniles regularly forage with snowy egrets and it may be difficult to tell them apart at a casual glance.
See what I mean? At first glance, they are easily confused with the snowy egrets. Little blues have mostly blue bills while snowy egrets have mostly black bills with yellow near the head. The little blue heron has “smoother” white feathers while the snowy egret has “fluffier” white feathers. Their legs are also different colors, but that’s not easy to see while they are wading and backlit. The big difference is the color of their feet. Snowy egrets have bright yellow feet on black legs while little blue herons have greenish feet to match their greenish legs. Juvenile little blues are tolerated by snowy egrets; the adult versions are not. We did not see any adult little blue herons. They must have all been home sleeping because all we saw were unsupervised juveniles.
Using my fantastic bird language interpretation skills, I can pretty much decipher this one is telling me, “It’s right there! I know there’s a fish right there! Can’t you see it?!”
Like other herons and egrets, the little blue sometimes practices canopy feeding. It will spread its wings creating a bit of shade on the water. Small fish will swim to the shade. When the little blue finds a fish it wants to get to know better, it will strike.
I think this one is looking for a quick snack, although the shade is on the wrong side. I guess that’s why they have to practice this technique.
Little blue herons are monogamous breeders, meaning each bird only breeds with one mate during a season. A pair will tend 3 to 5 eggs laid in April. The eggs hatch 21-24 days later. The chicks stay with their parents for 6-7 weeks, then they are on their own. They grow up so fast . . . sigh.
With a consistent source of food, and success avoiding hazards and predators in their environment, a little blue heron can live up to 14 years in the wild. Predators of little blue herons include raptors, coyotes, and cougars. Their eggs, if found, are mostly devoured by ravens, raccoons and crows.
I think this little blue heron wants us to leave now. It’s going to stare at its reflection in the water. The little blue turns its back on us to watch for something to eat and to ignore us until we go away.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more bird photos from our South Carolina winter escape, please visit here.
Credits
Thanks again to Jan and Allyson for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Beautiful photos. I’ve never seen a little blue heron before. We get snowy egrets and night herons and of course the pTerodactyls in the for of GBHs.
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Thanks Tim. Jan took about half of the photos of this little blue, so she gets at least half of the credit. The only night herons we saw were in the small captive wildlife exhibit across the street. The little blues and snowy’s were all a blur at the time. It wasn’t really until I saw them in the digital darkroom later that I noticed they weren’t really snowy’s. Thanks for stopping by.
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The blues happen. Kudos to Jan for her fine photographic work.
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Jan says thank you. She’s also my bird whisperer, pointing them out for me to photograph.
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Laurie can hear the birds much better than I can so she points out a lot of birds to me.
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I will admit, Linda is my secret weapon while birding – Ron and I call her the Owl Whisperer as she has an uncanny ability to find Snowy Owls out in our winter fields.
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We need all the help we can get.
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I forgot to mention to not let her hear that, don’t want that to go to her head and start charging me for bird spotting!!!
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Jan pointed out most of the smaller birds in the trees on this trip. The problem is finding them with the big glass through all the twigs and leaves.
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That is a problem.
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Got to like sunny days and reflections. Nice images.
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Thanks Jerry! We were very lucky with the weather and the birds.
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A perfect symbiotic relationship.
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That was meant for Tim’s comment above.
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Thanks, Brad, I really enjoyed this informative post on the little blue heron. Excellent photos, and comparison shots with the snowy egret. Little blues always stump me and are a good reminder to pay attention and look closely at the details. Oh and I also enjoyed your bird language interpretation skills…great fun. Wonderful post.
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Thank you Jet! I had thought all along that the juvenile little blues were snowy egrets. I’m glad I could provide a little information, and some comic relief at the same time. Those courses in bird translation from Intrigued are really beginning to pay off.
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You and Jan captured some nice images. I especially liked the one with spread wings in his reflection. I wonder how many hunting and fishing habits of birds are innate, and how many are learned from older birds. The example you caught here of shadowing at the wrong angle to be able to fish the shadow is excellent.
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Thank you for the kind words, Sam. We enjoyed taking and sharing the photos and stories. It really helped to have two cameras at different angles capturing all of the action. We did see a Great Egret use the canopy fishing technique more successfully; meaning it was creating the shadow on the proper side (upcoming post). I wondered the same thing, how do the wading birds, or any bird for that matter, learn all of these techniques: nurture or nature? Stay tuned for more stories from this location.
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Beautiful photos. I would have a hard time telling them apart! Thanks for the tips.
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Thanks for your compliments. I, too, had trouble telling them apart when they were live, but in the digital darkroom it became a bit more obvious. I had to update all of the keywords I created in Lightroom to be more accurate. Thanks for paddling by. 🙂
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Awesome shots and a new bird to me. I have not heard of this one, how cool is this with just a touch of blue. Nice 🙂
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Thanks Sandra. I’d heard of the GBH (we have them in Central IL) but not the LBH. I’m hoping one day to see an adult version that is actually, dare I say it, blue!
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Super photos, Brad. It was really helpful to see the Little Blue next to the Snowy Egret for comparison, and to be able to admire those elegant waders next to one another. I don’t remember hearing the term “canopy feeding” before, but it’s very descriptive.
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Thank you Tanja. I think that is the photo when I realized there was a difference. Up until then they were just mid-sized white wading birds. Thanks for stopping by.
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That’s one of the reasons photos are so helpful: they can be studied again after the encounter to help compare some of the finer details that might have escaped us while we were looking at the birds.
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Unless they are the batch of back-lit LBJs I keep trying to identify. 😉
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Yes, except for those. I also have plenty of those. 🙂
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Ha, we all do!
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Absolutely agree, although it stings when the uber-rare Ivory Billed Woodpecker check you were bragging about in the field ends up just being another Pileated in the photograph hehehe.
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Yes, one should be careful when it comes to that particular bird. 🙂
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Great shot! 👌👌
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Thank you very much.
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☺️
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