Adult: Slate blue medium-sized heron. Head dark. Legs lime green to blue green. Pale gray bill with black tip.

Breeding adult: Slate blue. Reddish head. Plumes (aigrettes) of purplish color on back and head. Black legs. Bill is black-tipped, of brilliant cobalt blue.

Immature: White. Dark-tipped pale gray bill. Facial skin gray. Green-yellow legs like adult. As plumage changes from the white of immaturity to the blue of adulthood, the heron undergoes a "calico" phase (a plimage of blue and white).

Habitat: Salt and freshwater marshes. Wet prairies, coastal beaches, wooded swamps and rivers. 

A Florida resident.

Text by Mary Jean Rogers, West Volusia Audubon.

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