Tricolored Heron Imitating Reddish Egret?

[Michael Pancier]

I was photographing this tri the other day and I swear it was doing the reddish egret dance.

Do the tri's normally do this or is there a dance step variation?

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I've noticed a similar behavior with tricolored herons, at least with the upraised wings, but never a "dance". Usually, I would surmise, they do this to cut out glare by shading the water's surface, to see fish below. Though triclored herons do have several methods of feeding, this method seems to involve a straight on attack, and not the fancy reddish egret stuff.
This does remind me of the first time I saw a reddish egret white morph feeding. I was convinced it was a great egret who had learned the behavior from watching reddish egrets! Until I got home and looked at the images, and realized it was the white version, and a reddish egret all the time. regards~Bill

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Yes, I am seeing the same these days near at a small wetland nearby. I dont have much experience as Tricolored is quite rare in the Dallas area. In fact, I had never seen it outside our rookery( where a few pairs breed every year) before this year. But the one I am observing these days.....he/she does the reddish egret imitation all the time. But I dont know how good the impression is as I have never seen reddish egret :-)