Maguari Stork

How to find it

Expect nothing on a normal trip, because the Costa Rican checklist treats it as rare or accidental. Look at open wetlands rather than forest, and check every large white stork carefully. The first birders to find it knew it was unusual because it was neither a Wood Stork nor a Jabiru. A local guide expected a lost bird like this might turn up again at Palo Verde or other Guanacaste wetlands. Its movements follow rainfall, its routes are not well known and they change from year to year, which may explain why wandering birds turn up unpredictably. Wood Storks are common around Chomes, so scan each one for a feathered white neck.

How to recognise it

The Maguari is a large stork, about 97 to 120 cm tall. Adults are mostly white with black flight feathers and a black tail.

The bill is straight and bluish grey with red along it, and the last third is dark maroon. The eye is pale yellow and the legs are purplish red. The neck is fully feathered and white, with no dark bare patches, and bright orange-red bare skin surrounds the eye.

In flight, look at the tail. It is black and forked, and white under-tail feathers stick out below it and are easy to see.

Young birds have dark grey down for much of the nestling period. After they turn white, a dark brown eye is the most reliable sign of a juvenile.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

The Maguari hunts by walking slowly through shallow water or damp vegetation. It often feeds alone, in pairs or in small family groups.

It also soars on thermals with neck and legs outstretched, a good moment to see the forked black tail and the white under-tail feathers. It is a generalist feeder, taking fish, frogs, eels, snakes, crabs, insects, small mammals and bird eggs.

Where it lives

Across its range it lives in open wetlands such as flooded grassland, marshes, lake edges and rice fields, and it generally avoids forest. In South America it is found in wetlands, savannas and farmland in the lowlands east of the Andes.

In its normal range it is common in the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia, about the closest it usually comes to Central America. In Costa Rica the first bird was found at Chomes, on the Gulf of Nicoya.

When to see it

The first Costa Rican bird was seen on 16 September 2013, and it was gone when birders searched the next day.

Similar birds

Costa Rica's other two storks are the Wood Stork and the Jabiru, and the Maguari is intermediate in size between them. The Wood Stork is the easiest to confuse with it. It has a dark, bare head, while the Maguari has a fully feathered white neck. Elsewhere, its forked black tail separates it from the very similar White Stork.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican name is Cigüeña Maguari, and the press has also called it cigüeña americana. A Costa Rican bird-name page lists it under the local names cigueña and garzón, shared with the Wood Stork. Colombia uses Cigüeña Llanera and Bolivia uses Cigüeña Americana. The name Maguari comes from the Tupi language and means roughly 'heavy bill'.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list places it in category A, an accidental visitor, while globally it is rated Least Concern.

Photography tips

It soars high on rising warm air with neck and legs stretched out, so look up as well as at the wetland. A flying bird shows the forked black tail and white under-tail feathers.