Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis, Juvenile. Photograph within a residential community in the greater Fort Lauderdale area, September 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis, Adult. Photograph within a residential community in the greater Fort Lauderdale area, September 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor ruficollis. Photograph taken along the rocky shoreline of El Tule, Km 17, Baja California Sur, January 2012.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis. Photograph taken within the Florida Everglades, January 2019. Photographs courtesy of Carol Snow, Del Mar, California.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis. Photograph taken along the rocky shoreline of the greater Bahía de los Ángeles area, Baja California, January 2019. Photograph courtesy of George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles. Identification courtesy of Mary & George Flicker, Bahía de los Ángeles.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis. Photographs taken in the greater Zihuantanejo area, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Identifications courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis. Photograph taken in chiaroscuro within the Florida Everglades National Park, south Florida, January 2023. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Note the Alligator in the background.

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis. Photograph taken in chiaroscuro within the Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida, January 2023. Photograph and identification courtesy of Faith Hubsch, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Tricolor Heron, Egretta tricolor rufficollis, is one of two subspecies of Tricolored Heron and the only one found in Mexico. It is a member of the Ardeidae Family of Herons, Egrets and Bitterns. There are twelve members of the Egretta Genus. They are formerly known as the Louisiana Heron and in Mexico as garceta tricolor and garza tricolor.

The Tricolor Heron is a small to mid-sized slender heron. The sexes are similar in appearance with the males being slightly larger than the females. They have a dark slaty back and neck that contrast with a white foreneck, breast, belly, rump, and tail with long purplish maroon feathers on the back. Their neck and bill are very slender. While breeding both sexes acquire white head crest plumes, develop violet tinges, and their bill becomes blue at the base and develops a black tip. Breeding males have magenta iris and breeding females the inner margin of the iris is rose to scarlet. When not breeding their bills are mottled yellow to brownish yellow in both sexes, the bare skin on the head is mottled yellow to brownish yellow and turns cobalt when breeding, their legs, and feet grayish yellow and turn maroon, orange or a deep pink while breeding.

The Tricolor Heron is a partial migrator that breeds in coastal habitats, including estuaries, salt marshes, mangrove swamps, river deltas, and lagoons, and in freshwater areas as available at elevations up to 1,500 m (4,900 feet). Nesting habitat can be linked to the presence of alligators, which protect against mammalian nest predators. At least half are non-migratory year-round residents of their southern environment. Others make annual migrations to overwinter in Mexico and Central and Southern America. Surveys on the Yucatán Peninsula indicate that only 20% of the birds present during the winter were present during the summer. They are diurnal feeders with their diet being largely composed of small fishes (topminnows and killifish) supplemented by a limited number of crustaceans, frogs, and insects but only when overly abundant. They are less social when foraging that most other herons, typically feeding as solitary individuals or at the edge of mixed species groups. Their nests are preyed upon by alligators, a wide variety of birds, feral cats, opossum, raccoons, and snakes. They have a high mortality rate with approximately 80% dying in the first year and 32% dying annually thereafter. They have life spans of up to fourteen years.

The Tricolored Heron is found along both coasts of Mexico with established year-round breeding colonies along the Atlantic Coasts of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and a few sites along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula; along the Pacific Coast breeding colonies are known in Baja California Sur, central Sonora south to Guatemala. Summer visitors are common in Baja California. The rufficollis subspecies is the only subspecies found in Mexico.

The Tricolored Heron is a straightforward identification due to its overall blue color with contrasting white belly. The possible exception is the immature Little Blue Herons during its transition into its adult plumage.

From a conservation perspective the Tricolor Heron is currently considered to be of Least Concern, however their populations are known to be significant decline in my areas including Baja California. In areas where aquaculture has begun, they have become pests and are subject to shootings and other control measures. In some parts of South America their eggs, young and adults are hunted for human consumption.