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The unofficial mascot of the Chilamate Rainforest Retreat!

Watch especially for the white markings in their wings. Unless they are standing on a football pitch (aka soccer field), Sunbitterns can be surprisingly difficult to spot because they tend to move slowly and carefully along the edge of the river and blend in very well with a background made mottled by shadow, river rocks, earthen banks, gravel, and sand bars. On a recent trip to the Chilamate Rainforest Retreat, we spotted our first Sunbittern as it foraged on the other side of the river and then were spoiled by an individual that frequented the lodge’s football pitch and area right next to their cabins! You should also see one if checking the river from such hotels as Selva Verde, Tirimbina, Chilamate Rainforest Retreat, or El Gavilan. A boat trip should also do the trick but watching for it from the bridge at Chilamate will probably work. In fact, this might be the easiest place to tick this bird away from the Llanos of northern South America and the Pantanal of Brazil and Paraguay.Īny birder visiting the Sarapiqui area has a very good chance of seeing this species if they just keep scanning the river during their stay. They can turn up along just about any river or stream that runs through humid forest in Costa Rica but are most easily and regularly seen on the Sarapiqui River near Puerto Viejo. The Sunbittern gets its name from the large, sunburst-like patches on its wings that it shows when excited or threatened. Recent molecular studies have shown that its closest relative is the Kagu, a bizarre and very wanted bird species from New Caledonia that has also defied clear taxonomic placement since its discovery. Is it a rail? Some freaky anhinga thingy? How about a heron (after all it does have bittern in its name)? The Sunbittern is none of the above although it kind of looks like a mutant avian patchwork quilt of all of the above and more. The Sunbittern is so strangely cool that even non birders should want to see it.

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The three Costa Rican river birds that get top honors are: Sunbittern, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, and Torrent Tyrannulet. Three of these species are perennial favorites on target lists of birders visiting Costa Rica, the fourth is frequently overlooked as a possibility by North American birders because it is more commonly seen in the Rocky Mountains, and the fifth can be any one of a number of river-loving bird species that are practically a given when birding Costa Rica. These are the birds that make us stop at every bridge to scan the rocky shore with our binoculars, that encourage us march down steep sets of stairs constructed for viewing scenic waterfalls, and that even drive some of us to risk killing our digital cameras by picking our way upstream on slippery rocks until the feathered, riparian-loving quarry is glimpsed. No, what I am referring to is seeing at least five bird species that are principally found on rivers when birding Costa Rica.

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This doesn’t mean that they would have contracted some unfortunate and frightening skin disorder. Perry and his trusty graduate students were marveling at tropical aquatic ecosystems and broadening the lexicon of their field of study, even if they weren’t looking for birds, they probably would have gotten the Costa Rican Riverbird Flush. “Great! Now back to looking for giant neotropical crayfish.” “Ok, I noted that, have taken water samples, and pictures above and below water with the waterproof camera to document our find.” “Yep! It’s one of those crazy tropical bodies of water that seems to defy an easy definition! Let’s call it a streamaswampus!” Perry, what definition would you give to this body of water? I can’t seem to find a definition for its clear, then muddy, then marshy appearance.” The mountainous terrain and giant bucketloads of rain combine forces to fill the country with so much rushing water that they would probably feel obliged to come up with new terms to describe their observations. Even aquatic ecologists bound by profession to maintain strict definitions for bodies of water that flow down gradients would find all of the above and more in Costa Rica. Cost Rica abounds with rivers, streams, rivulets, brooks, ravines, and glens.