Waders (Bitterns, Herons, Egrets, Ibis & Spoonbill)

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Status & Distribution: Common permanent resident throughout the city, where it frequents any habitat containing shallow water. While any neighborhood pond or ditch is capable of holding this species, Back Bay NWR and Pleasure House Point NA tend to be the locations that provide the best studies.

Identification: Our largest expected species of wader, Great Blue Heron is an almost unmistakable species. During springtime, “high breeding plumage” individuals shows an extensive blue lore.

Similar Species: In its immature form, it is sometimes confused with Tricolored Heron, however Great Blue Heron is significantly lager than this species.

Great Eget (Ardea alba)

Status & Distribution: Common permanent resident throughout the city, where it frequents any habitat containing water. While any neighborhood pond or ditch is capable of holding this species, Pleasure House Point NA tends to be the location that provides the best studies.

Identification: Large wader, slightly smaller in overall size to only Great Blue Heron, but body is all white. Note large, bulky yellow bill, yellow lore and all black legs. In spring, “high breeding plumage” individuals show extensive green lores.

Similar Species: There are three other “white egret” species that regularly occur in Virginia Beach. Snowy Egret is the only such species that occurs year-round in the city. It is significantly smaller and shows an all black bill. Cattle Egret is a common summer resident, primarily throughout agricultural portions of the city. Like Snowy, Cattle is a much smaller species than Great, and shows yellow legs. The third potential confusion comes from immature Little Blue Heron, which looks considerably different in its first year than the adults. Similar in size to Snowy, it shows a blue-ish gray lore and a two-toned bill, black at the tip and blue-ish gray towards the base.