Tricolored Heron

 

The Tricolored Heron is a sleek and slender heron adorned in blue-gray, lavender, and white. The white stripe down the middle of its sinuous neck and its white belly, set it apart from other dark herons. They forage alone so we see them occasionally in our ponds just outside groupings of other birds. This heron wades through coastal waters in search of small fish, crustaceans, insects, tadpoles and spiders often running and stopping with quick turns and starts as if dancing.

​

The male selects a nesting site with a colony of other wading birds typically on an island or higher ground. The male displays there to attract a mate. This can include neck stretching, deep bowing, and flying in a circle around the nest territory, making deep wingbeats that create a deep whomp sound. Once paired the female often greets the male with feathers raised, pointing its bill skyward and then down at the nest while passing a twig to the mate.

​

The pair will have one brood a year with 3-5 pale greenish blue eggs. Both parents will sit on the nest for 21-24 days. Once hatched, the babies are covered in down with eyes partly open and will stay in the nest from 17-21 days when they may begin climbing near the nest. They can fly at about five weeks. As the herons get older they often lunge and snap at the parents. To appease the youngsters, parents greet them with bows!

​

The older recorded Tricolored Heron was at least 17 years, 8 months old. It has been banded in Virginia in 1958. In some locations the herons are at risk from habitat loss and in other areas they are gaining habitat so overall they seem to be holding steady.