Figure 85. The Committee reviewed California records of the Little Blue Heron for two years in the early 1970s, but the species quickly proved to be of regular occurrence in the state, even breeding in small numbers. This adult was photographed on 5 January 2002 at the mouth of the San Diego River, San Diego County (David Furseth).

 

 

 

 

 

LITTLE BLUE HERON Egretta caerulea (Linnaeus, 1758)

Accepted: 7 (100%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 0	CBRC review: 1972 and 1973 records
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Color image: none

This heron breeds from central Kansas and central Texas east to southern Florida, and along the Atlantic coast north to Maine. To the south, it occupies both coasts of Mexico, including Baja California Sur, south to Central America and northern South America. As discussed below, small numbers are also established in southern California. Birds from northern populations move south after breeding, but the species maintains a year-round presence along the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts. Vagrants are encountered with some regularity east of the Rocky Mts. north to southern Canada. In the West it is casual north to southwestern British Columbia, Idaho, and Wyoming. More far-flung records are from Oahu, northern Alberta, northern Manitoba (Taylor 2003), northern Ontario, western Greenland, Chile, and the Azores.

California’s first adequately documented Little Blue Heron was a first-spring female present 7–15 March 1964 at Bodega Bay in Sonoma County (Jeter and Paxton 1964, MVZ 152153). Within a decade it had become apparent that small numbers occur regularly in the state (e.g., Unitt 1977, Roberson 1980), so the CBRC reviewed records of this species for only a short time. In southern coastal San Diego County, up to a few pairs of Little Blue Herons have bred among Snowy Egrets since 1980. The species is now a permanent resident in that area, and since 1992 the most stable colony site has been at Sea World, San Diego (Unitt 2004). Little Blues have also nested twice in the Imperial Valley (Patten et al. 2003) and very rarely at south San Francisco Bay (Morlan and Erickson 1988, AB 47:1146, FN 48:984). Otherwise, coastal records are peppered throughout the year, with vagrants occurring fairly regularly along the coast as far north as the San Francisco Bay area and infrequently farther north to Del Norte County. In the interior, Little Blue Herons are most frequently encountered May–September, with records north to Big Pine, Inyo County. Only three have been documented inland during winter: an adult at the south end of the Salton Sea, Imperial County, 7 December 1974–8 February 1975 (AB 29:741); a first-winter bird at California City, Kern County, 19–22 December 1992 (AB 47:300); and a first-winter bird at the south end of the Salton Sea, Imperial County, 31 December 2002–14 January 2003 (NAB 57:256).