The Howland Picture Pages: Tricolored Heron

Page by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/10/12 21:50:51 $ (UTC)

The Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) is another species of bird that is very unlikely to be seen in our Calgary home town area. This smaller, slender heron prefers the coastal areas of the southeast U.S. in terms of its North American range, although the Sibley range map does show it as appearing rarely inland particularly in numerous spots across the eastern U.S. (Sibley also shows a rare occurrence dot in southern Alberta, near Calgary, but I haven't yet been able to determine what sightings might have produced this record.)

This heron has a long, thin and dark-colored bill that seems to be proportionally longer than with other herons. Plus it is the only dark-colored heron to have white belly feathers. Like the Great Blue Heron, the Tricolored Heron has long trailing plumes on its head when in breeding plumage. We have only encountered the Tricolored Heron once, and then it was in breeding plumage that was quite eye-catching.

Resources where you can find out more:

• Tricolored Heron profile at CLO including sound sample
• Tricolored Heron profile at the USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

	This preening Tricolored Heron is the only one that we have spotted to date. We encountered it in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, on the south coast of Texas. As our trip to the NWR was short, we were both sick and the weather was fairly rotten, these photos were the best that could be achieved at the time. I certainly hope for better on a future trip, but in the meantime this was a great bird just to have seen. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 448 true color Exposure time: 1/41.70 F-stop: 6.0 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 18.9000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Spot Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500
	Here the Tricolored Heron can be seen in full profile. Notice the very long bill. Unfortunately, the shot is a bit blurry because the bird was moving just then and the shutter speed was slow from the overcast of the day. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 444 true color Exposure time: 1/41.70 F-stop: 6.0 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 18.9000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Spot Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500
	Here, we can see some of the nice detail of the back feathers. Herons normally stand quite still which is why they make excellent photographic subjects even when lighting conditions are not the best. (Notice the blurring of the duck that is swimming past in the foreground.) This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup. EXIF 2.2 photo info:   320 x 427 true color Exposure time: 1/43 F-stop: 6.0 ISO speed: 100 Focal length: 18.9000 Exposure mode: Auto White balance: Auto Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Spot Exposure program: Aperture priority Gain control: None Contrast: Normal Saturation: High Sharpness: Hard Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E4500

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