Tricolored Heron

The Tricolored Heron is a slender day-Herons, exclusively found in the New World. Previously termed the Louisiana Heron, it is one of the 4 North American Herons in the Egretta genus.

About Tricolored Herons

Within the species, breeding and nonbreeding birds have distinct characteristics that distinguish them from one another. The young ones also have striking features that set them apart from different species of Herons. From the irises of the adults during mating to the wings of the young ones, each subdivision of Tricolored Herons has unique features that make them easily identifiable.

The Tricolored Herons were not a focus of the Plume Trade of the 20th century, but the species has indubitably suffered as a result of the damage done to nesting habitats of other species of birds.

● Tricolored Heron Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Tricolored Heron Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Tricolored Heron Range and Migration, Nesting

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Tricolored Heron Color Pattern

Tricolored Herons usually are a mix of lavender, blue-grey, and white. There are distinct features that separate breeding and nonbreeding Tricolored Herons. Breeding birds often have small white plumes that extend from behind their heads, vivid blue patches of skin around their bills, and their legs have a pink hue. Breeding members also take on white crest plumes, and mauve to violet necks and mantle feathers. The scapulars and backs of their necks acquire a more prominent rufous tinge, and the lower scapular plumes become buff-colored. Their legs become pinkish, their faces acquire a blue hue, and the tips of their bills turn black. During courtship, the irises of the breeding males become magenta, and the inner margins of the irises of the female breeder turn rose or scarlet, with the rest of their irises brown.

Nonbreeding Herons of this variety lack these features and have yellowish legs. They also have slate grey heads, wings, necks, and tails, purplish-maroon long feathers on their backs, and white chins, breasts, bellies, rumps, and underwing coverts. Their throats are tawny or chestnut. Juvenile Tricolored Herons have rusty necks and rusty-edged feathers.

Description and Identification

Tricolored Herons are generally easy to distinguish from other members of the New World Heron family, with their dark upper body parts maintaining a striking contrast with their white breasts and bellies across all plumages and ages. This subspecies of Herons are the only small Herons in the continent of North America that have white underparts and forenecks, as well as slaty dark backs and necks.

Tricolored Herons have the distinct feature of contrasting white bellies that set them apart from other blue Herons. However, one might mistake an immature Little Blue Heron whilst on the search for a Tricolored. Molting immature
Little Blue Herons initially appear bright white and through the process of their molting, gradually turn dark blue. The feature that sets the two apart is that the Little Blue Heron normally maintains a more pied air, and rarely shows a plumage with a blue tinge and white belly. Tricolored Herons are usually slightly taller, slimmer, and have a more elegant, poised appearance than the Little Blue Heron.

Tricolored Heron Song

The most frequently observed calls by Tricolored Herons include calls resembling “aaah” and “scaah” for startle reactions, and “unh, cuhl-cuhl” and a variety of groaning calls during mating.

The “aaah” calls are often for situations requiring primal displays of aggression. This includes when humans are approaching their nests, or when they feel a predator approaching. As we will discuss in detail, Tricolored Herons often display aggressive, agonistic behavior. The “aaah” call is a prime example of this.

The “scaah” call is used in a variety of contexts. Much like the “aaah” call, we observe Tricolored Herons using this call when threatened. This applies in situations such as where they anticipate the approaching of breeding birds towards their nest. The “scaah” call is usually sung when the birds are in a posture signifying alertness.

Whilst displaying sexual behavior, and during the circle fight display in particular, the male bird sings a long series (5-12 repetitions) of “cuhl-cuhl” calls while moving his bill up and down. Female birds also may follow suit, but the series of calls is usually shorter. When flushed, the birds often let out guttural sounds resembling “unh”.

Tricolored Heron Size

Tricolored Herons are medium-size and delicately built. They also have relatively slender bills and necks. Adult Tricolor Herons have an average length of 24-28 inches, an average wingspan of 37 inches, and average bills of 3.5-4.3 inches. The plumages remain fairly consistent between the sexes, but the males are generally larger in mass than the females- the average male weighs 14.64 ounces (415 g) as compared to the average female weight of 11.78 ounces (334 g).

Tricolored Heron Behavior

Tricolored Herons display aggressive forms of behavior in multiple different situations. This aggressive behavior takes the form of alert posture, upright display, forward display, aerial fighting, and twig shaking.

Male-male encounters most often lead to aerial fighting, especially during courtship. Once find their pair, the male and female birds engage in the defense of their territories. Young individuals display threats by jabbing their bills into the nest to ward off approaching adults. Aggression and threat are most often conveyed through upright, forward, and snap-stretch postures.

The birds alternate between two main forms of walking- slow-paced, intentional stalking, and rapid running. Rapid runs are most common during hunting, and feature sharp turns, pauses, and pirouetting. Young birds climb upwards by using their lower mandible to grasp the branches and then exerting upwards force to push themselves over the branch.

During the process of mating, females are often driven off the nest sites by their male counterparts. Male irises turn a deeper hue, and the males erect all plumes when females approach the nest. Once the female birds land in the nest, the pairs engage in bill-nibbling to mark their pairing.

The birds usually copulate in the proximity of their nest site, and the process lasts 8-11 seconds. Post-copulation, preening and twig-shaking are common. Copulation takes place most often during egg-laying but is present throughout the early stages of incubation as well.

Tricolored Heron Diet

Members of this species largely maintain a diet of smaller fish, but they also eat small insects, frogs, and select crustaceans. They forage for top minnows, kill fishes and other small fish in open brackish wetlands. They are skilled foragers, and shift between foraging styles, and can alternate between solo and flock foraging strategies.

Tricolored Heron Habitat

In the nonbreeding range, we have little insight into where the Tricolored Heron lives. Presumably, the migrant birds switch between a variety of wetland habitats during migration across continents, with a keen focus on habitats along rivers and through coastal wetlands. Observations have been made of migration over open water as well.

With regards to wintering, there have been a variety of wetland habitats identified in the United States, including mangrove swamps, salt marshes, coastal mudflats, cypress swamps, canals, ditches, freshwater herbaceous marshes, and lake edges in Florida. In Louisiana, Tricolored Herons have been spotted to take habitat in different fresh and saltwater wetlands as well.

Breeding Tricolored Herons generally take to coastal habitats, including but not limited to salt marshes, mangrove swamps, salinas, lagoons, deltas, and estuaries. Freshwater habitations are also popular.

Range and Migration

There is little available information on the routes chosen by Tricolored Herons for migration. Recurring sightings of migrants in Bermuda suggests that they have a considerable capacity to cross large expanses of water. The timing of their migration is difficult to pinpoint in several regions, owing to the fact that the species is present throughout the year in all regions except for the northernmost areas of the breeding range. Evidence suggests that young members of the species remain in Central American winter range throughout the year. There have been observations of offshore migrants and banding recoveries, which tells us that different flocks move between Florida and Cuba, and Florida and Central America.

Casual observation in Panama indicates their northward departure in February. Spring migration from Florida has been recorded in early to mid-March, for which the arrival in Maryland is in mid to late April. Following the breeding season, the birds disperse in all directions, northward in particular. They also disperse both along the coast and towards the islands.

Tricolored Heron Lifecycle

The number of eggs laid in one sitting ranges from 3-5, 3-4 being the most common in North America. Before incubation, both sexes may sit on the eggs sporadically. The time spanning the laying of the first egg to its hatching is usually around 22 days. The eggs show tiny fractures 24-30 hours before hatching, and the young let out high-pitch noises as they emerge. There has not been any recorded observation of parental assistance during hatching.

Five days after hatching, the youngins are capable of moving in the nest and can climb out of the nest by 11 days with the help of their bills, wings, and feet. By the 17th day, they perch above or to a side of the nest and return exclusively to be fed. By the 24th day, they perch away, to the tops of bushes or trees, and do not return for food. They perch in intraspecific groups by the 30th day and begin to defend the perch area.

Nesting

For this sub-species of Heron, pair formation and nest-building occur almost simultaneously. It has been observed that nesting takes place during the breeding season habitually.

Nests occur in monospecific or multispecies colonies. Multispecies colonies usually exist in denser vegetation than most other species and are likely to form in conspecific groups. The vegetation on the nests is the densest in the periphery and sparsest in the center of the colonies.

The nests that form in dense vegetation form preferentially in well-shaded shrubs and short trees, between 0.5 and 13 feet above the ground or water level. In a colony in Cuba, the nest heights were within the range of 9.8-13.12 feet in a red mangrove habitat.

Tricolored Herons use a vast variety of woody materials to build their nests. This includes but is not limited to fragments of red maple wood, small oakwood, bald cypress, groundsel bush, willows, wax myrtle, buttonbush, and even prickly pear cactus. Where the birds nest in salt marsh islands, they use flattened mats of needle rush.

The nest heights, as mentioned before, can be anywhere between 0.5 to 13 feet above the base, and depend on the vegetative structure of the habitat, competition among birds for nesting areas, and the mix of nesting species.

Anatomy of a Tricolored Heron

Tricolored Herons are a medium-size, delicately built birds. They have slim and slender necks and bills. Fully grown, they have an average length of 24-28 inches, an average wingspan of 37 inches, and average bills of 3.5-4.3 inches. The males are on average larger than the females, and those in South America are likely to be smaller than the rest.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, the Tricolored Heron is an endlessly fascinating species of bird. The abundance of knowledge we have on these Herons is due to the fact that they are the most studied species of North American Herons.

The birds are well researched in the United States, but there is a large scope for deeper research on their populations in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

In North America, their numbers appear to be on the decline. Another area to prioritize for further study is the mechanisms that cause and facilitate the gradual decline of the species. A rather pertinent question for the study is the impact of rising sea levels on the population’s breeding patterns, as estuaries and other water bodies, are of utmost importance to their reproduction.

Ornithology

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Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Tricolored Herons

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Tricolored Herons are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Tricolored Heron Iron On Patches

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Tricolored Heron Stickers

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