Tricolored Heron

How to find it

Scan the shallow edges of lagoons and look in coastal estuaries. Check the edge of a group of other waders for a lone dark bird. Its active feeding style helps separate it from the slower Great Blue Heron. Watch marsh edges for the stiff, upright pose with the bill pointed at the sky. Boat trips through mangroves and along rivers such as the Tárcoles have given birders good views.

How to recognise it

Adults have a blue-grey head, neck, back and wings.

A white line runs down the front of the neck, and the belly is white.

The build is slender, with a very long bill, neck and legs.

The bill base and bare face skin are yellowish for most of the year and turn bright blue in the breeding season.

Juveniles are brown with white streaks on the neck and underparts.

A visitor who saw one at Tárcoles at dawn noted its mix of blue-grey, lavender and white beside a Great Blue Heron. These field marks describe the species across its whole range, not only Costa Rica.

What it sounds like

Recording: Guy Babineau, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It mostly hunts alone, wading through the shallows, and small fish are its main food. It also takes crustaceans, shrimp, insects and small amphibians. It often feeds at the edge of mixed groups of waders, and it forages in open water and pools more than Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons do. Its hunting is energetic: it often runs and stops with quick turns and starts. At other times it stalks slowly or stands still and waits. When it senses danger it freezes upright with its bill pointed at the sky.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a bird of coastal lagoons, mangroves and estuaries, and it hunts in shallow water. It also shows up on remote beaches and in mangrove lagoons. A Costa Rican source says it uses fresh and salt water, ponds and pool edges. It is generally uncommon in the lowlands of both slopes, and it sometimes climbs to about 1500 m in the Central Valley. Around Turrialba, the Angostura Dam is the spot to look for it. The national museum shows it in its lagoon habitat group.

When to see it

A Costa Rican museum catalogue lists it as both resident and migratory and gives the breeding period as the rainy season. A Costa Rican bird database says it breeds in June, and a few non-breeding young birds stay through the summer.

Similar birds

Adults look a lot like the much more common Little Blue Heron, and the Tricolored's white belly and its bill colour settle the identification. A young Little Blue Heron moulting from white to blue can cause confusion, so check the belly and bill carefully on patchy birds. A photographer at Río Tárcoles notes that dark and pale birds can look very different.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Garza or Garceta Tricolor. Its older scientific name was Ardea tricolor.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as R,M (resident and migrant), and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

A wildlife photography site calls the species wary of people and suggests keeping about 10 m away. Dawn light at Tárcoles gave one visitor a striking view.