{"id":16170,"date":"2014-10-17T05:44:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T11:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=16170"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:32:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:32:30","slug":"tricolored-heron-in-the-waves-of-the-gulf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/17\/tricolored-heron-in-the-waves-of-the-gulf\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricolored Heron In The Waves Of The Gulf"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-153240 size-full\" title=\"Tricolored Heron in the waves, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg\" alt=\"Tricolored Heron in the waves, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"16168\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Tricolored Heron in the waves &#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 250mm, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Just a simple Tricolored Heron image this morning that I created at Fort De Soto County Park in March of 2009. It was a great day for wading birds and I went home with quite a few images of this Tricolored Heron and a Reddish Egret that I was very happy with. Both birds completely ignored me as I laid flat on my belly in the sand and water because they were more interested in foraging for prey.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/tricolored-heron-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Tricolored Heron photos plus facts and information about this species<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a simple Tricolored Heron image this morning that I created at Fort De Soto County Park in March of 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,254],"tags":[4004,4116,4077,627,626,4246,3989,313,4119],"class_list":["post-16170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-tricolored-herons","tag-adult","tag-egretta-tricolor","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-tricolored-heron","tag-wading-birds","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-4cO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16024,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/02\/tricolored-heron-hunting-the-gulf-of-mexicos-shoreline\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":0},"title":"Tricolored Heron Hunting The Gulf Of Mexico&#8217;s Shoreline","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tricolored Herons are smaller than Great Blue Herons and larger than Snowy Egrets and all three of these wading birds hunt in many of the same locations along the Gulf Coast.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron hunting the Gulf of Mexico\u2019s shoreline, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8687,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/23\/tricolored-heron-in-breeding-plumage-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":1},"title":"Tricolored Heron in Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was digging through my image files yesterday and came across a series of Tricolored Heron images that I had never edited from a May morning in 2009 when I was photographing birds at Fort De Soto's north beach.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron resting after eating, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6548,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/10\/tricolored-heron-in-breeding-plumage-with-prey\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":2},"title":"Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage with prey","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While in breeding plumage Tricolored Herons have redder legs, darker red eyes, blue lores and blue on the bill plus a longer, white occipital plume than they do during the nonbreeding season.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage with prey, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14914,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/05\/08\/crouching-tricolored-herons\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":3},"title":"Crouching Tricolored Herons","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tricolored Herons use many foraging behaviors to obtain their prey including walking quickly then crouching before stabbing their prey.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Crouching Tricolored Heron, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-crouching-mia-mcpherson-1314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-crouching-mia-mcpherson-1314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-crouching-mia-mcpherson-1314.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-crouching-mia-mcpherson-1314.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1088,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/10\/14\/tricolored-herons\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":4},"title":"Tricolored Herons","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Another one of my favorite wading birds is the Tricolored Heron, a bird that used to be called the Louisiana Heron. It can be found in estuaries along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, in inland freshwater marshes in Florida.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron side view, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-mia-mcpherson-8889.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-mia-mcpherson-8889.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-mia-mcpherson-8889.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-mia-mcpherson-8889.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62931,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/19\/tricolored-herons-in-florida-habitats\/","url_meta":{"origin":16170,"position":5},"title":"Tricolored Herons In Florida Habitats","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I lived in Florida Tricolored Herons were among my favorite wading birds to photograph and I found them in many different types of habitats.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron at Roosevelt Wetland, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/tricolored-heron-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/tricolored-heron-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/tricolored-heron-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/tricolored-heron-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2751.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}