UTSW Rookery

Spring 2016 I started visiting the bird rookery at UTSW Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. It was my first time to see a rookery. In this gallery I am attempting to document what takes place in a rookery for each species of aquatic bird that comes here. It has been an amazing journey that I am sharing here. There are 8 species that nest here and I will divide them by species in the order that they show up.

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Tricolor Heron On Nest

After mating, the tricolor herons dropped out of sight and were not spotted for several weeks. Finally someone found a nest, but it was heavily concealed, they win the prize for most elusive bird at the rookery. I heard about the nest and with a tip I received, was finally able to find it, but only for that one day. By the next week, the nest was empty with the chicks fledged. I did not get a brooding shot for this bird. I'll share more photos later when I start picking up each species story with chicks in nest. Here one of the parents is standing in the nest. It had 3 chicks almost ready to fledge but I'll save shots that show them for later. You can see a fuzzy head with a dark beak in the right of this nest if you look closely.
Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)
UT Southwest Medical Center Rookery

heron aquatic aquatic bird water fowl waders Rookery dallas texas Southwest Medical Center Bird Rookery breeding season SMC rookery breeding plumage shy shy bird small heron breeding plumes tricolored heron egretta tricolor nest nesting tricolor nest tricolor heron chicks in nest hidden