The tricolored egretta is a colorful, medium-sized bird in the heron family. The egretta is a mix of blue, grey, and lavender with a white belly.  They have long legs and a long slender neck and bill.  The young are differently colored than the adults and have a rich chestnut head and neck, with chestnut feathering on blue-grey back.  The tricolored egretta is more solitary when foraging than other North American herons.  When it forages for its prey, it is typically belly-deep in the marsh waters and lakes along the edge of a mixed flock of different birds.  It was likely the most numerous heron in North America until the Cattle Egret, originally native to parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, expanded and successfully colonized in much of the rest of the world.  

Male and female egretta look alike, although the male is a lot larger than the female.  90% of their diet is composed of fish.  They also eat amphibians, crustaceans, gastropods, leeches, worms, spiders, and other insects.  The tricolored egretta is very defensive about its hunting area and will charge at other tri-colored herons and other wading bird species.

 

The male chooses the nesting site before mating with the female.  The female lays her eggs on a nest constructed of sticks and twigs placed on a bed of reeds, or in a tree, which the male and female build together.  The female egretta lays, on average, 3-4 bluish-colored eggs once a year.  Incubation is by both sexes for 21-25 days.  The female lays one egg every other day and the eggs hatch over a several days period, making the first chick to hatch more experienced at food foraging and aggressive encounters with other chicks in the brood.  Therefore, the first chick to hatch has an advantage over its nestmates and a better survival rate compared with other chicks in the brood.  The young are ready to fly at about 35 days of age, and then go off on their own since adults are mostly solitary.  

 

The population of the tricolored heron has remained large partly because hatmakers did not use their feathers, as they preferred other herons.  The oldest recorded tricolored heron was at least 17 years, 8 months old when it was shot in the Bahamas in 1976.  It had been banded in Virginia in 1958.

 

When passing by the lakes and marshes in Ibis it’s not difficult to recognize the tricolored heron with its magnificent colors.