[7] It is a medium-large, long-legged, long-necked heron with a long, pointed, yellowish or greyish bill with a black tip.

Its legs and feet turn from dark yellow in nonbreeding birds to pink in breeding adults.

In breeding plumage, they have long, blue, filamentous plumes on their heads and necks, and buff ones on their backs.

[3][4] Kent (1986) found that the diets of tricolored herons in Florida consisted of 99.7% fish and prawns.

[8] While other members of Egretta may also eat crabs and opportunistically forage for terrestrial arthropods, the tricolored heron has been consistently observed to be almost exclusively piscivorous, primarily feeding on members of Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae and Poeciliidae, as well as Centropomidae and Cichlidae.