Sunbittern
Eurypyga helias

The monotypic Sunbittern is so named because of the "sunburst" feather pattern it displays on its underwings during mating rituals. A pair of Sunbitterns resides in a rainforest exhibit at New York's Central Park Zoo, and I have visited them often, softly whistling back and forth with the birds, in some way hoping that I was building good karma that would earn me a sighting in the wild. One afternoon, as we watched the hummingbird feeders at Chorro Macho, our guide, Danílo Rodriguez, quietly gestured for us to move to the river's edge. We were stunned to see a Sunbittern not ten feet away, although it flew off almost immediately, giving us a brief look at the beautiful feather pattern. Danílo circled downstream of the bird, and slowly worked the bird back in our direction, whhich is when I captured the image below. The Sunbittern quickly outfoxed us and crossed to a second branch of the small river, but we were thrilled by this remarkable, point-blank look as this almost mystical species. I must remember to return to the zoo to offer my thanks to the captive birds for spreading the good word!

I enjoyed almost daily sightings of Sunbittern during my stay at the Canopy Lodge in May of 2006, including a few of a juvenille bird. Early one afternoon Raúl Arias de Para (owner of the Lodge), my father, and I watched the bird pictured below as it worked its way down the stream next to the Canopy Lodge. It is amusing to listen to my video of the occasion, as I sound a bit exasperated as I tried to get my Dad onto the bird; a novice observer has little idea of what to look for the first time they view the enigmatic Sunbittern. The image at the bottom of the page is a bit blurred (my video camera is nowhere near fast enough to get clean stills of flying birds), but it gives a decent idea of the sunburst wing plumage that gives the Sunbittern its common name.

Elsewhere on this site:
Birds of Panama, 2005

Birds of Panama, 2006

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