Home/Species/ Tricolored Heron

Egretta tricolor

(Müller, 1776)

Tricolored Heron

G5Secure Found in 1 roadless area NatureServe Explorer →

G5SecureGlobal Rank

Least concernIUCN

Identity

Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.102427

Element CodeABNGA06050

Record TypeSPECIES

ClassificationSpecies

Classification StatusStandard

Name CategoryVertebrate Animal

IUCNLeast concern

Endemicoccurs (regularly, as a native taxon) in multiple nations

KingdomAnimalia

PhylumCraniata

ClassAves

OrderPelecaniformes

FamilyArdeidae

GenusEgretta

Synonyms

Hydranassa tricolor(Müller, 1776)

Other Common Names

Aigrette tricolore (FR) Garça-Tricolor (PT) Garceta Tricolor (ES) tricolored heron (EN)

Concept Reference

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.

Taxonomic Comments

Often placed in monotypic genus Hydranassa (AOU 1983).

Conservation Status

Rank MethodExpertise without calculation

Review Date2016-04-07

Change Date1996-11-20

Edition Date1988-04-21

Range Extent>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)

Rank Reasons

Very large range; secure globally, but regional trends are unknown for most areas.

Range Extent Comments

BREEDS: central Baja California, southern Sonora, southeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, Gulf Coast, and Atlantic coast north to southern Maine, south along both coasts of Middle America to coastal northern South America (on Pacific coast to central Peru, Atlantic-Caribbean coast to northeastern Brazil); also Bahamas, Greater Antilles, western Caribbean islands. Breeds casually or rarely inland in North Dakota and Kansas. NORTHERN WINTER: north to Baja California, southeastern Texas, Gulf Coast, and New Jersey, south through the breeding range. In the U.S., most abundant in winter along the Texas-Louisiana coast and in Florida (Root 1988). Wanders irregularly outside usual range, especially after breeding.

Threat Impact Comments

Threats include development and disturbance of nesting and foraging habitat; storms and shoreline erosion sometimes have adverse effects (Byrd and Johnston 1991).

Ecology & Habitat

Description

A slim, long-necked, long-legged wading bird with mainly dark blue upperparts and a long slender pointed bill; belly and foreneck are white; throat of adult is tinged with chestnut; hindneck and wing coverts are chestnut in immatures; average length 66 cm, wingspan 91 cm (NGS 1983).

Diagnostic Characteristics

Differs from great blue heron in being smaller (length 66 cm vs. 117 cm), in having a white rump, in lacking black streaks on the white foreneck, and in not having black stripes on the head or a black crown. No other long-necked heron has a white foreneck and belly.

Habitat

Marshes, ponds, sloughs, bayous, rivers, mangrove swamps, saltwater lagoons, islands; salt and fresh water.

Nests mainly near salt water in mangroves or buttonwood, in thickets of tidal marshes, willow thickets or rushes of freshwater marshes, on Texas island sites in dry thickets, large cane, and prickly pear, and on bare coastal islands in grass. Nests often with other herons/egrets.

Ecology

Usually solitary except when breeding (Hilty and Brown 1986).

Reproduction

Clutch size is usually 3-4. Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 21 days? Young are tended by both parents; by 24 days are fed away from nest; fledging occurs within 4 weeks. Nests in small or large colonies.

Palustrine Habitats

HERBACEOUS WETLANDSCRUB-SHRUB WETLANDFORESTED WETLANDRiparian

Other Nations (2)

United StatesN5B,N5N

Province	Rank	Native
South Carolina	S2	Yes
Texas	S5B	Yes
Louisiana	S5B	Yes
South Dakota	SXB	Yes
Kansas	S1B	Yes
District of Columbia	S1N	Yes
Mississippi	S2	Yes
New York	S2	Yes
New Hampshire	SNA	Yes
North Carolina	S2B,S3N	Yes
New Mexico	S3N	Yes
Georgia	S3	Yes
Maine	S1B	Yes
Arkansas	S2B	Yes
Rhode Island	S2N	Yes
Maryland	S3B	Yes
Michigan	SNRN	Yes
Alabama	S3	Yes
Pennsylvania	SNA	Yes
Virginia	S2B,S3N	Yes
Massachusetts	SXB,S2N	Yes
Missouri	SNA	Yes
New Jersey	S3B,S3N	Yes
Delaware	S1B	Yes
Connecticut	S1B	Yes
Arizona	S2N	Yes
Florida	S4	Yes

CanadaNNA

Province	Rank	Native
Ontario	SNA	Yes

Roadless Areas (1)

Florida (1)

Area	Forest	Acres
Alexander Springs Creek	Ocala National Forest	2,954

References (27)

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in <i>The Auk</i>]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Bent, A. C. 1926. Life histories of North American marsh birds. Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. 135.
BirdLife International. 2004b. Threatened birds of the world 2004. CD ROM. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.
Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt. 2000. A field checklist of the birds of Guyana. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Byrd, M. A., and D. W. Johnston. 1991. Birds. Pages 477-537 in K. Terwilliger, coordinator. Virginia's endangered species: proceedings of a symposium. McDonald and Woodward Publ. Co., Blacksburg, Virginia.
Dumas, J. V. 2000. Roseate Spoonbill (AJAIA AJAJA). No. 490 IN A. Poole and F. Gill, editors, The birds of North America. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 32pp.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Harrison, H. H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.
Hilty, S.L. and W. L. Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. 836 pp.
Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb. 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
National Geographic Society (NGS). 1983. Field guide to the birds of North America. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC.
Palmer, R. S. (editor). 1962. Handbook of North American birds. Vol. 1. Loons through flamingos. Yale University Press, New Haven. 567 pp.
Parker III, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Ecological and distributional databases for neotropical birds. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Payne, R. B., and C. J. Risley. 1976. Systematics and evolutionary relationships among the herons (Ardeidae). Univ. Michigan Mus. Zool., Misc. Publ. No. 150. 115 pp.
Powell, G.V.N. 1987. Habitat use by wading birds in a subtropical estuary: implications of hydrography. Auk 104:740-749.
Raffaele, H. A. 1983a. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fondo Educativo Interamericano, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 255 pp.
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. 511 pp.
Ridgely, R. S. 2002. Distribution maps of South American birds. Unpublished.
Ridgely, R. S. and J. A. Gwynne, Jr. 1989. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. 2nd edition. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA.
Root, T. 1988. Atlas of wintering North American birds: An analysis of Christmas Bird Count data. University of Chicago Press. 336 pp.
Sibley, D. A. 2000a. The Sibley guide to birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Smith, J. P. 1995. Foraging flights and habitat use of nesting wading birds (Ciconiiformes) at Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Colonial Waterbirds 18:139-158.
Spendelow, J. A. and S. R. Patton. 1988. National Atlas of Coastal Waterbird Colonies in the Contiguous United States: 1976-1982. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 88(5). x + 326 pp.
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Zook, J. L. 2002. Distribution maps of the birds of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Unpublished.