Take a closer look at that long-legged heron — it might be a tricolored heron! Here's where to find these birds, and how to identify them.
What Does a Tricolored Heron Look Like?
Don’t be too hasty to mark that wading bird down as a great blue heron or little blue heron — you might’ve found a tricolored heron, instead! These smaller herons feature grayish-blue plumage along with purple accents. White feathers feature on the belly and in a stripe down the neck. Legs are pinkish during breeding season and yellow otherwise.
“I took this picture on Bald Head Island, North Carolina. It does not look like the great blue or little blue herons to me. What is it?” asks Birds & Blooms reader Greg McCabe.
Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman say, “Good spotting! It would be easy to pass this off as another bird, like the little blue heron, but this is a tricolored heron. At this angle we can barely glimpse the white belly and white stripe up the front of the neck, contrasting with the dark blue sides of the neck, typical of the adult tricolored. Another good field mark is its bill shape: thin, straight and very long, more than three times the length of the head. On the little blue heron, the bill is only about one and a half times as long as the head.”
Range and Habitat
Look for tricolored herons along the gulf coast and the lower half of the Atlantic coast, year-round. During breeding season, their range extends through the lower Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast.
During breeding season, birders would most likely spot a tricolored heron near saltwater. Keep an eye out for them in bays, tidal marshes, or lagoons; they breed on islands. When breeding season ends, they expand their habitat to include freshwater food sources, too.
Learn even more about wading birds.
Nesting Habits
Tricolored herons nest in multi-species colonies. The male typically constructs a nest in a dense tree, approximately 13 feet off the ground. The female then lays three to five eggs, which she incubates for about three weeks. In another three weeks, young leave the nest.
Here’s how to identify a green heron.
Diet: What Do Tricolored Herons Eat?
A tricolored heron’s diet consists of fish, and largely small fish, at that. Aside from fish, they’ll also munch on aquatic insects, tadpoles, frogs, and lizards. Shallow-water foragers, they stir up sediment, chase with flapping wings, and trick fish under shade created by their wings.
Calls and Sounds
As is the case with other herons and egrets, the tricolored heron doesn’t have a melodic song. Instead, it gives a scratchy, flat, and nasally sounding call. To listen to the tricolored heron’s call, play the audio from Cornell Lab’s Macaulay Library.
Bird sounds courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “Tricolored Heron: Life History“
- National Audubon Society, “Field Guide: Tricolored Heron“
About the Experts
Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman are the official bird experts for Birds & Blooms. They are the creators of the Kaufman Field Guide series and they lead birding trips all over the world.
