Family Eurypygidae
Sunbittern
Eurypyga helias
In Spanish: Garza del Sol (Sol y Luna, Ave Canasta)
- Resident
The river edges of Sarapiquí and Tortuguero, in the Caribbean lowlands. All year.
Wait for the wings. Folded, the Sunbittern is a quiet pattern of fine black, grey and brown lines, walking the edge of a river.
Spread, the wings show bright eyespots, round marks like staring eyes, in red, yellow and black. The bird uses them on purpose: to court, to threaten another sunbittern, and to startle a predator. On the Sarapiquí our guides watch the river edges for it.
Where to see it
- Hotspot page
- Named place
- Nearby lodge (numbers match the cards)
- Selva Verde, on the Sarapiquí Riverthe river brings it to its edges.
- Tortuguero National Park and its canalson the list for the trees along the water, with the Great Potoo.Not on the map above: it sits too far away to show at this zoom.
- Tirimbina Biological Reserve, Sarapiquíon the river below the canopy bridge, watch the edges.
Nearby lodges
Within 20 km of a place on the map, in the same zone.
- 1
Selva Verde Lodge0.2 km from Selva Verde, on the Sarapiquí RiverSee the lodge - 2
Pachira Lodge0.0 km from Tortuguero National Park (off the map)See the lodge - 3
La Selva Biological Station10.8 km from Tirimbina Biological Reserve, SarapiquíSee the lodge - 4
Laguna Lodge0.0 km from Tortuguero National Park (off the map)See the lodge - 5
Evergreen Lodge1.1 km from Tortuguero National Park (off the map)See the lodge
How to recognise it
At rest the plumage is subdued, finely lined in black, grey and brown, and the bill is long, pointed and black on top. The spread wing settles it: the eyespots in red, yellow and black appear the moment the bird opens up, the flash that gives the display away. Male and female differ only in small details of the feather pattern on the throat and head. The bird in Costa Rica is the northern form, which used to be treated as a species of its own.
Where it lives
Humid tropical forest with an open understorey, near rivers, streams, ponds or lagoons. The Central American form lives at various altitudes. Our pages place it in the Caribbean lowlands: on the Sarapiquí River at Selva Verde, on the river below the canopy bridge at Tirimbina, and on the list at Tortuguero.
When to see it
All year, as a resident.
Trips that find it
- Best of Birding in Costa Rica's Caribbean9 nightsSee the trip
- Caribbean Lowlands Birding Tour11 nightsSee the trip
- Dancing with Quetzals11 nightsSee the trip
- Costa Rica's Top Birding Spots11 nightsSee the trip
Tell us when you are travelling and our team in Costa Rica builds the trip around the birds you want to see.
Plan my birding tripHow we know this 1 sources, each read on the date shown
- Wikipedia: Sunbittern read 4 November 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbittern