Tricolored Heron

Egretta tricolor

Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns
Tricolored Heron, photographed by lwolfartist

Photo: lwolfartist · Wikimedia · CC-BY 2.0 (licence)

Call and song

About the Tricolored Heron

Slender, medium-sized heron. Slaty-blue overall with a white belly and white underwings. Extremely long bill. In breeding plumage, look for buffy plumes on the lower back and orange tones on the throat and foreneck. Juveniles are stained rusty on the neck and shoulders. Fairly common but with restricted range in the southeastern U.S., mainly along the coast. More widespread in Central America and northern South America. Occurs in shallow wetlands, marshes, and mudflats. Often forages actively, darting around erratically and chasing after fish.

Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made

Where it has been recorded

Recorded in 51 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.