Birdwatch: An Enchanting Costa Rican Encounter with the Sundom | Bird watching

“Garza del sol! Garza del sol!I speak some Spanish, but I still struggled to understand what I was told. Ella—the sister of José, owner of Hotel Quelitales in Costa Rica—impatiently beckoned me down the path until we reached a small, tree-covered creek.

Then I realized what she was so excited about: the ‘sun heron’ – in English, a sun goddess – was posing as still as a statue, just a few meters in front of me.

Solar bitters are unique, in their own family. Their closest relative, the equally bizarre Kagu, lives about 12,000 kilometers away, on the Pacific archipelago of New Caledonia.

If a bird were ever designed by artificial intelligence, the result might look like a sunbitter. Everything about its shape, actions, and plumage wrecked my brain: the strangely elongated body, the strangely flattened head, and the jerky movements of the neck as it moved gently forward.

So excited that I could barely breathe, I realized there was a second bird nearby. When the duo met, they looked at each other warily before firing off a loud volley of clang – whether this was meant as a friendly greeting or a hostile warning I couldn’t tell.

Then, at the right moment, both birds spread their feathers to reveal their hidden secret: the dazzling, bejeweled wing coverings with bright red, yellow and black eyespots. Even in the dark, shadowy creek, the effect was simply mesmerizing.