{"id":43267,"date":"2016-11-27T06:43:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T13:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=43267"},"modified":"2025-08-22T10:01:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:01:27","slug":"it-is-tricolored-heron-not-tri-colored-heron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/27\/it-is-tricolored-heron-not-tri-colored-heron\/","title":{"rendered":"It is Tricolored Heron Not Tri-colored Heron"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TricoloredTricolored Heron in the Gulf surf – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/1600, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 160mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been added to several groups on Facebook where people post their bird photos and although I don’t participate in sharing my images there very often because Facebook strips out EXIF metadata which leads me to copyright infringement concerns, I do enjoy seeing the bird images that other people post from all over the globe and specifically those found in North America.<\/p>\n

\"TricoloredTricolored Heron looking for breakfast in the waves – Nikon D200, handheld, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 280mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I must admit I get a little bothered when I see images of birds where the name posted for the species in the photo is incorrect, for instance, it is Tricolored Heron not Tri-colored Heron.<\/p>\n

The Tricolored Heron was known as the Louisiana Heron until 1957 when the American Ornithologists’ Union<\/span><\/a> officially changed it to Tricolored Heron. I have checked other sources including Clements<\/span><\/a>, Howard & Moore<\/span><\/a>, International Ornithological Committee<\/span><\/a> (IOC) and can see that this species has never been called “Tri-colored Heron”.<\/p>\n

\"BreedingBreeding plumage Tricolored Heron walking in a lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/800, ISO 200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure there are times people use nicknames in titles, for instance “Spoonies” instead of using Spoonbills or abbreviations such as “Roughie” instead of using Rough-legged Hawk and those are in my opinion acceptable but sticking a hyphen in a name where it does not belong is just wrong. It might also mislead other people who might believe “tri-colored” is the correct name when it isn’t.<\/p>\n

In conversation I do use abbreviations, nicknames or even banding codes when I am speaking to people who know birds, for instance other bird photographers or birders but when I am speaking to people I don’t believe would know the abbreviation or nickname I use the full name of the bird because I want to be helpful, accurate and informative.<\/p>\n

So I often wonder… do I correct the person posting “tri-colored” as the name of this species and tell them it is “tricolored” and has never been “tri-colored” or just let it go.<\/p>\n

Lately I have been more inclined to just let it go on Facebook groups where people are just posting their images but I definitely correct the name if given incorrectly on Facebook pages where people are requesting the identification of a bird they have photographed but don’t know the name of their subject.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t let it go if someone wrote “Northern Pin-tail” instead of Northern Pintail or “Sand-hill Crane” instead of Sandhill Crane.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Tricolored Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I must admit I get a little bonkers though when I see images of birds where the name posted for the species in the photo is incorrect, for instance, it is Tricolored Heron not Tri-colored Heron. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,254],"tags":[4053,4116,5531,4077,626,3997,4246,4901,5530,3989,313,4119],"class_list":["post-43267","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-breeding-plumage","tag-egretta-tricolor","tag-gulf","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-herons","tag-lagoon","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-surf","tag-tri-colored-heron","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-surf-mia-mcpherson-2337.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bfR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8687,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/23\/tricolored-heron-in-breeding-plumage-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":0},"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 "Birds"","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":11570,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/12\/05\/tricolored-heron-hunting-in-the-surf-of-the-gulf-of-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":1},"title":"Tricolored Heron Hunting In The Surf Of The Gulf Of Mexico","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Waves, warm sand, a camera in hand and a Tricolored Heron. Such simple things but they bring such great pleasure.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron hunting in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-fort-desoto-surf-mia-mcpherson-2911.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-fort-desoto-surf-mia-mcpherson-2911.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-fort-desoto-surf-mia-mcpherson-2911.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-fort-desoto-surf-mia-mcpherson-2911.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16024,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/02\/tricolored-heron-hunting-the-gulf-of-mexicos-shoreline\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":2},"title":"Tricolored Heron Hunting The Gulf Of Mexico’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 "Birds"","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":1088,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/10\/14\/tricolored-herons\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":3},"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 "Birds"","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":7421,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/05\/breeding-plumage-tricolored-heron-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":4},"title":"Breeding plumage Tricolored Heron in flight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I've always liked this image of a Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage that flew past me while I sat in the water of a tidal lagoon near a Spartina marsh in Florida. Warm water, a sea breeze, birds, nature and photography.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Breeding plumage Tricolored Heron in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16170,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/17\/tricolored-heron-in-the-waves-of-the-gulf\/","url_meta":{"origin":43267,"position":5},"title":"Tricolored Heron In The Waves Of The Gulf","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a simple Tricolored Heron image this morning that I created at Fort De Soto County Park in March of 2009.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron in the waves, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.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-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-adult-mia-mcpherson-8910.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\/43267","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=43267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}