Cabanis's Ground-Sparrow

How to find it

Go early, before 8 am or even before 7, and watch the edges of hedgerows and brushy areas. Coffee farms with brushy edges, trees or understory, and brushy streamside areas, work better than open coffee. Because the bird is shy, learning its sharp tsip calls helps you locate it before you see it. Near Turrialba it is often found in coffee fields. It also lives close to the capital, and one birder found it in the woods behind the Alajuela Walmart, across the highway from the airport. A guided morning walk for this species runs near San Ramón, starting at 07:00.

How to recognise it

This is a stocky sparrow with a rusty-red head and a sharply defined black forehead and cheeks. The back is greenish, and there is a dark patch on the chest.

Look closely at the face. The rusty crown reaches behind the eye and has a black front edge, and a white eye ring breaks that black edge. The white spots above and below the eye give the bird the Costa Rican name Cuatro Ojos, or four eyes.

Expect to see it low, in dense young growth, rather than perched in the open.

What it sounds like

Recording: Rajan Rao, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It hops and searches for seeds and insects in leaf litter and grass, mostly in the morning, sometimes scratching with a double kick. It is shy and keeps to dense cover, though shy birds sometimes leave cover to feed in the early morning. Pairs stay together all year.

A study counted birds between 6:00 and 9:00 am, when the species is most active. The same study found lower bird density and bigger territories at suburban and urban sites than at rural ones.

Where it lives

It uses coffee farms, chayote plots, thickets, live fences and forest edges, and it stays low in dense, young growth. It occurs between about 600 and 1600 m above sea level. A national museum review gives about 500 to 1700 m, including the west side of the Monteverde range, and a birder's guide says it likes mid elevations around 1,200 m.

It is rare east of Cartago, though in the Reventazón basin it reaches Turrialba. It has also been recorded in the Ujarrás and Orosí valleys.

When to see it

Breeding runs about 10 months, with a peak in June and July. Nesting is reported from May to September, and the male sings only in the rainy season.

Similar birds

The only other Melozone in Costa Rica is the White-eared Ground-Sparrow, which tends to replace Cabanis's at higher elevations and is the more common of the two. Cabanis's sticks to middle elevations around 1,200 m, and too low is also unsuitable for it. Its call can be confused with chip calls from Rufous-collared Sparrow, Rufous-capped Warbler and Blue-black Grassquit, but the ground-sparrow's tick note is sharper. Range-wide, Prevost's Ground-Sparrow of southern Mexico to Honduras looks similar.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican names include Pinzón Cafetalero (coffee-farm finch), Jupa Roja (red head), Rey de Comemaíz and Mercenario. One Costa Rican study uses Cuatro-ojos de Jupa-roja, and the name four eyes refers to the white spots above and below the eye.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident endemic (R-END), and it is Near Threatened on the IUCN list.

Photography tips

Early light is the best chance for a view, when shy birds sometimes leave dense cover to feed. Check hedgerow and brush edges before 8 am, or before 7. Photographers often arrive with long lenses at the Paraíso park, where a monument to the bird stands.