The tricolored heron (''Egretta tricolor''), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a small species of

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

native to coastal parts of the Americas; in the Atlantic region, it ranges from the northeastern United States, south along the coast, through the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

, to northern South America as far south as Brazil. In the Pacific region, it ranges from Peru to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, but it is only a nonbreeding visitor to the far north.

Habitat and breeding

Tricolored herons breed in

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and other coastal habitats. They nest in colonies, often with other herons, usually on platforms of sticks in trees or shrubs. In each

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

, three to seven

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s are typically laid.

Description

This species measures from long and has a typical wingspan of . The slightly larger male heron weighs on average, while the female averages . It is a medium-large, long-legged, long-necked heron with a long, pointed, yellowish or greyish bill with a black tip. Its legs and feet are dark. Adults have a blue-grey head, neck, back, and upper wings, with a white line along the neck. The belly is white. In breeding

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

, they have long, blue, filamentous plumes on their heads and necks, and buff ones on their backs.

Behavior and diet

The tricolored heron stalks its prey in shallow or deeper water, often running as it does so. It eats

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

leech Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodie ...

es,

worm Worms are many different distantly related bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limbs, and no eyes (though not always). Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine polychaete wor ...

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s, and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

Gallery

File:Tricolored Heron2 by Dan Pancamo.jpg,

Feeding Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food, typically to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbi ...

File:Tricolor Heron with Fish - Flickr - Andrea Westmoreland.jpg,

Marco Island, Florida Marco Island is a small sea island, or barrier island, on the Gulf Coast of the United States located 20 miles (32 km) south of Naples in Collier County, Florida. Marco Island is an affluent beach and boating resort island with a small-town ...

File:Tri-color Heron.JPG File:Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) RWD5.jpg, Flying File:Tri-colored heron.jpg, Juvenile File:Tricolored Heron JCB.jpg File:Tricolor Heron in breeding colors..jpg, In full breeding colors in central Florida File:Tricolored Heron juv..jpg, Between the crocodiles Tortuguero, Costa Rica

References

External links

Tricolored Heron - ''Egretta tricolor''
- USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
Tricolored heron photos at Field Guide: Birds of the World on Flickr

Tricolored heron Bird Sound
at Florida Museum of Natural History * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q392139

tricolored heron The tricolored heron (''Egretta tricolor''), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a small species of heron native to coastal parts of the Americas; in the Atlantic region, it ranges from the northeastern United States, south along the coast ...

Birds of the Americas Birds of the Caribbean Birds of the Guianas Birds of Mexico Birds of Panama Birds of Colombia Birds of Venezuela Birds of Ecuador Birds of Peru Birds of Brazil Native birds of the Southeastern United States