Tri-Colored Heron in Mist
by Charlene Adler
Title
Tri-Colored Heron in Mist
Artist
Charlene Adler
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Photograph taken at the World Birding Center, South Padre Island, Texas
Tricolored Heron
Size: 23 – 28 inches tall, wingspan 37 – 38 inches
Also known as the Louisiana heron, tricolored herons are found mostly in Florida and around the Gulf coast into Texas. Their bluish-gray coloration might remind you of a little blue heron, but the thin white line that runs down the front of their throat and white belly is an easy giveaway.
Fascinating Fact: Tricolored herons are active hunters, darting through the shallows and covering a lot of ground as they forage.
Tricolored Herons are widespread along the Texas coast where they nest with other colonial waterbirds in small to large colonies. Except for the non-native Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis), Tricolored Herons are the most numerous of the heron species in Texas. This species was not commercially important to the plume trade; thus, this heron was not directly decimated during the era of plume hunting. However, since these birds nest in association with plume-bearing species, disturbance to heronries must have had some adverse effect upon them locally until they received legal protection and the benefit of conservation and management efforts.
In Texas, an important influence on waterbird populations is the 20-25 year precipitation cycle (Telfair 2002). Between the early 1960s and late 1980s, there was a significant upward trend, more recently the trend has begun to reverse (Tom Spencer, Texas Forest Service, pers comm.). The trend varies regionally and there are intermittent drought years and irregular intervals with pronounced wet/dry springs-summers such as those associated with El Niño/La Niña years and massive slow-moving atmospheric disturbances. Inland wetland habitats are particularly subject to the effects of these trends. Unfortunately, there is a lack of data about the status of the Tricolored Heron in Texas before the 1970s; so, the possible relationship between its breeding populations and the precipitation cycle is unknown for earlier years.
The dark color of Tricolored Herons in inconspicuous small and even large nesting colonies makes the species difficult to census accurately except by ground-based surveys.
DISTRIBUTION: The Tricolored Heron is abundant; but, is mostly coastal in estuaries, lagoons, swamps, and marshes within the Coastal Prairies region. Specific habitats include mud flats, salt and fresh water marshes, tidal creeks, shrub swamps, open shallow bays, and human-made habitats, especially, flooded rice fields and aquaculture ponds (Kushlan and Hancock 2005).
Uploaded
April 20th, 2022
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