This diminutive heron is one of Iowa’s most overlooked birds. It spends most of its time within thick stands of cattail, bulrush, and other emergent vegetation and is seldom seen unless one actually gets into the marsh itself. Even its soft, cooing call is easily overlooked. Some years it seems to be fairly common on some Iowa wetlands and other years it is difficult to find. With its short legs, it moves through the wetland by grasping stems of emergent plants and moving about, sometimes without getting its feet wet. Its nest is a shallow platform of reeds woven into the emergent plants. The overall loss of wetlands has undoubtedly reduced the populations of this species but beyond that, because of its secretive nature, it is unclear how common it is in the remaining wetlands.
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indicates a designated IBA.