Central Texas' August 2025 bird forecast

Here’s the Central Texas bird forecast for the month, courtesy of Travis Audubon. Learn more about Central Texas birds and bird-related events for all ages at travisaudubon.org or by calling 512-300-BIRD.

What to watch for in August: A post-breeding wanderer

If it’s August, there’s probably a Tricolored Heron in town.

In July, August and September a few of these strikingly colorful birds show up at pond, lake and river edges to fish. They are uncommon to rare at other times of the year, with records from February to December.

Tricolored Herons typically are birds of the Gulf Coast and Coastal Prairies, where they can be found all year in marshes and estuaries. They breed there, and after breeding, often birds will disperse in various directions.

The majority of these birds are the young-of-the-year.

Wandering may be an evolutionary strategy for birds to find a new suitable habitat to colonize. Or, perhaps the breeding habitat is less productive as the season wears on and can’t support the demands of more mouths to feed. Dispersal may be the best chance for survival. It could be that new destinations have resources beneficial to growing birds. When the weather changes seasonally, it should trigger the migratory instinct so the birds will move south.

With a trained eye, it’s fairly easy to distinguish this heron from other possible dark herons like the stockier Little Blue (uncommon year-round), Reddish Egret (rare away from the coast), or Great Blue Heron (which is much larger).

The Tricolored Heron is the only one with a white belly and white stripe up its dark neck from its breast to its chin. Adults in non-breeding plumage have slate gray bodies, purplish breasts and back feathers, yellow bills and greenish yellow legs. In breeding plumage, these birds are stunning with blue bills and facial skin, pink legs and a few white head plumes.

Get familiar with the juveniles, though; they have rusty necks, with some rust in the wings and upper back.

Small fish make up 90% of the Tricolored Heron’s diet. This heron almost always forages in wetlands, preferring low vegetation in open and semi-open habitats. This can include wet prairies, and possibly rice farms if conditions allow fish to thrive. In a mixed species group of herons and egrets, look for the Tricolored on the edges as it is less social than others. Tricolored Herons have been found to prefer higher fish densities when foraging, and abandon a low-yield environment before Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons do. They find desirable conditions in submerged aquatic vegetation in both brackish and freshwater, a magnet for topminnows and killifishes.

Like many species that have an ecological niche that allows birds to coexist side by side and not directly compete, the Tricolored Heron tolerates belly-deep water (about seven inches) rather than shallower water where Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons fish. They mostly catch prey at the water’s surface, so anything that forces prey to the surface, like low oxygen levels, is a good thing.

If you’d like to try for a Tricolored Heron in Travis County, some good places to check are downstream of Longhorn Dam at Pleasant Valley Road, Secret Beach at Roy Guerrero Park, the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory ponds, and the pond at Mueller Southeast Greenway across from the Morris Williams Golf Course. A little further east, try Austin’s Colony Colorado River Park off FM 969 east of Texas 130.

Fun facts about Tricolored Herons

Tricolored Herons benefit from nesting in trees close to alligators, which catch mammalian predators. However, alligators have been observed climbing a couple of feet into low trees to nab unsuspecting herons.

Tricolored Herons are monogamous for the breeding season.

They only have one brood per year. Both sexes incubate the eggs.

Although rare, occasionally Tricolored Herons will raise chicks of other species like Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons.

One feeding strategy employed by Tricolored Herons is “canopy feeding.” They cover their heads and the front part of their bodies with their outstretched wings. It’s thought that this reduces glare so the birds can see their prey more easily, and that the shading may actually attract prey.

Migration in Tricolored Herons is challenging to study, since some are resident year-round in many locations, like Texas. How does one determine which are residents and which are just passing through? The Birds of the World website indicates that birds breeding on the Atlantic Coast north of South Carolina are migratory. Some spend the winter in the southeast U.S. while others move on to the Caribbean or Central and South America, based on bird banding data. Birds banded in Texas have been recovered mainly in Central America and Mexico.

Austin has several species of herons and egrets to enjoy, including the slender, elegant Tricolored Heron, so take an evening or early morning walk along a body of water and see if you can spot one.

Upcoming Travis Audubon Events – Warm weather may reduce your enthusiasm for the great outdoors, so let Travis Audubon help. Check the events calendar for field trips and classes. New to birding? Try a beginner’s bird walk, such as the ones frequently offered at Commons Ford Ranch Metro Park. Events fill quickly, and registration is required for most.