Red-breasted Meadowlark

How to find it

Look in open grassy country that has a few bushes or fence posts. Males use these as song perches, so scan posts and bushes for a singing male. Scan fence lines for a male in the open, as one was photographed on the Osa Peninsula. Pasture beside water is worth a stop: on a guided tour in late December and early January a lone male was found in a grassy pasture next to a large reservoir, and that stop also gave other water and open-country birds. Plan for patient scanning of the field, because this bird can take real time to find.

How to recognise it

The male is blackish with a bright red throat and breast, and that is why he is hard to mistake. A red patch shows at the bend of the wing. In flight the short tail and broad wings give him a bat-like look.

Females are duller red below, and brown and streaky above. The female is the harder bird to separate from other streaky open-country birds, so find the male first and then check the field around him.

Compared with the female of the similar White-browed Meadowlark, the female Red-breasted is a bit smaller, with a slightly longer bill, more red and fewer streaks below.

What it sounds like

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

Behaviour and diet

In display the male flies straight up, then parachutes down with wings and tail spread while singing. Males use bushes and fence posts as song perches, and in Costa Rica a male has been photographed on a fence post in open pasture on the Osa Peninsula.

On the ground it forages in the manner of a Bobolink, walking through pastures and rice fields. So watch grassy ground and fields, not treetops.

Where it lives

This is a bird of open country. It uses wet meadows, pastures and farm fields, as other birds in its genus do. In Costa Rica it lives in the southwest of the country, where it colonised recently.

It has also been found on the Caribbean slope. A tour group scanned a horse pasture on a drive down from the Turrialba area and found meadowlarks there, and the Turrialba farmland and La Angostura lake are other places it has been recorded. Its Costa Rican presence is tied to open pasture and farm land. Outside Costa Rica it ranges to Trinidad and south to northeastern Peru and central Brazil.

When to see it

A male was recorded in a pasture near Turrialba between 30 December 2022 and 7 January 2023, so it can be seen there at the turn of the year. Another record there dates from 2 November 2016.

Similar birds

The closest relative is the White-browed Meadowlark (Loica cejiblanca, Leistes superciliaris), which this bird was once treated as a subspecies of. That bird lives further south and is not in Costa Rica. Females of the two look almost alike. In Costa Rica the female is the one to look at carefully, since she can be confused with other streaky open-country birds.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Tordo Pechirrojo is the name used in Costa Rica. Elsewhere in its range it is called Soldadito in Colombia, Pastorero Pechirrojo in Ecuador and Panama, and Pecho Colorado in Uruguay and Argentina. Loica Pechirroja is also listed as a Spanish name.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and its global conservation status is Least Concern.

Photography tips

Males often perch on fence posts in open pasture, so scan fence lines for a male in the open. The bird can take real time to find, and one tour group spent a great deal of time scrutinising a horse pasture before picking out the meadowlarks. Plan for patient scanning of the field. Birds are generally most active from about 6 to 10 in the morning and 3 to 6 in the afternoon.