Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (Anabacerthia variegaticeps); Trepamusgo de anteojos; Ockerbrillen-Blattspäher; Anabatte à lunettes

It’s not easy to see the scales on the throat of this rather rare foliage-gleaner. A better mark is the orangish eye-ring and superciliary, which distinguish it from the Buff-throated foliage-gleaner (Automolus ochrolaemus), the only foliage-gleaner you’re likely to see in our area. You will in any case have to keep a sharp look-out if you want to find and correctly identify most of the more than 30 Furnariidae species that occur in Costa Rica. But don’t worry, it may be exasperating but it’s a lot of fun!

I have only one sure sighting of the Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner so far and that was in the valley of the Río Tuis, one of many wonderful birding locations close to Turrialba. Much closer to my home, however, is Aquiares, where John and Milena found and photographed the cooperative individual featured below:

For comparison purposes here’s the aforementioned Buff-throated foliage-gleaner (Automolus ochrolaemus), which is definitely the species you’re most likely to encounter in our area:

Foliage-gleaners are not easy to find out in the open, much less to photograph. The startled Buff-throated below was at Angostura, not far from the new Turrialba hospital, in 2016:

In accordance with some very recent name changes, I will close by briefly mentioning the 3 remaining foliage-gleaners that you may come across in Costa Rica: Buff-fronted (Dendroma rufa), Ruddy (Clibanornis rubiginosus), and Lineated (Syndactila subalaris). For all of these, a combination of great patience, sharp eyes and extremely good fortune will be needed!

The first species, the Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner does occur in our area at between 800-2300 m elevation on the Turrialba Volcano slope but I have so far seen it just once, and rather briefly, at Tapantí National Park. Identification was made as part of a guided tour led by top Costa Rican guide Ernesto Carman. The second species, the Ruddy Foliage-gleaner, has a very restricted range in Costa Rica, where it is limited primarily to the hills of the Coto Brus Valley in the southern Pacific region, but the third and final species, the Lineated Foliage-gleaner, was recently found by John and Milena at Las Abras high on the Turrialba Volcano slope. Photographs confirmed the identification but cannot be reproduced here.

Friend and expert photographer Guillermo Saborío sent me an excellent photograph of the species, taken elsewhere in Costa Rica, but I have not yet managed to extract it from his flickr collection.