This Little Blue Heron is a young one, less then 6 months. How do I know? - because it now has white plumage. The Little Blue heron gradually acquires blue-gray plumage as it matures except for the head and neck which turns blue later. Non-breeding adults have dark blue head and neck plumage and paler legs. Young birds are all white except for dark wing tips and have yellowish legs.
The Little Blue Heron stalks its prey methodically in shallow water, standing innocently motionless as a dead tree. It eats fish, crustaceans, amphibians, insects and reptiles. It stands in shallow water and waits for its prey to go by, and then it grabs its prey with its pointed bill. For another source of food, the more aggressive ones often follow farmers as they are plowing fields and then grabs the insects that are disturbed by the plow. The little blue heron makes its home in freshwater swamps, lagoons, coastal thickets and islands. Here, on the Lake Chapala shore, there's plenty of frogs, I know....... I heard them almost every night as they sing their lullaby.



Range


Life Cycle