I have a book called “American Wildlife Illustrated” from
1940 that sits on my book shelf with all of my other aging natural history
references. Some of the books are as new as 2010 but for every day that goes by
there is a fact, a theory or a matter of taxonomic nomenclature that becomes wrong,
disproved or obsolete. Printed material is old school. Your digital Audubon
Guides can be updated when needed.
When I started guiding in the Everglades
in the 90’s there was a bird that everyone in the swamps called the Louisiana
Heron. I was told it was also called a Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor), but people can be stubborn and despite
the bird carrying a name of another state, the locals were content to keep the
traditional name. I took a few years off from guiding and returned again in
2007. When I pointed to a heron and called it a Louisiana Heron you would have
thought I called a Badger a Buffalo
To be fair the name change had been approved by the American
Ornithologist’s Union in 1983 so everyone had
ample time to acclimate to the new colorful name. Why the change? Eliminating
local geographic names was deemed more appropriate. After all, the “Louisiana
Heron” is found from the eastern seaboard of the United
States , south through Texas
and in a few spots in Central and South America .
The three colors of the Tricolored Heron include a white belly, a powdery blue
body and a reddish patch on the back.
They are occasionally confused with the much larger Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and the similarly sized Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea). What always stands out to me is the white crest of feathers
that the Tricolored adults develop during the breeding season. It pops out a
bit in the back and looks like a mullet hairstyle.
There are still some old school birders who prefer
“Louisiana Heron” but Tricolored Heron is certainly the norm. What you won’t
see or hear anywhere is someone
petitioning for a name change to “Mullet Crested Heron”.
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