Fasciated Tiger-Heron now firmly ensconced on Quebrada La Loca

Friend Chalo Porras managed to get some nice shots of our adult Fasciated Tiger-Heron (Tigrisoma fasciatum), which has regularly appeared just below the bridge that carries the road to La Cinchona, San Diego and Santa Eduviges.  Don Martin didn’t find any nest this year and we haven’t seen more than one single individual (always an adult) at a time lately.

I have taken to running the short distance down to the bridge and back most days and have fairly regularly seen this same adult individual. Chalo took these shots from the bridge as we returned from his property at San Diego. This species likes rocky streams in hilly country but since the publication of Stiles & Skutch (A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica) it seems to have moved considerably up-slope, since its previous normal range extended only up to 800 m (we are at 1250 m). I must investigate whether this is the species feeding on trout at the bar El Gavilán y La Trucha just up the road at about 1450 m. This is a Caribbean species.

Front view shows the handsome chestnut-and- white breast stripe