National Bird of Costa Rica - The Rains are Coming!

Clay Colored Robin - National Bird of Costa Rica

In a country filled with beautiful colorful birds everyone must wonder why this plain colored bird could be the National Bird of Costa Rica.  With colorful toucans, mot mots, scarlet macaws - why would they chose this bird?  In 1977, the Costa Ricans chose the yiguirro as a national symbol (over many mcuh more coloroful birds that inhabit the country) due to its strong melodious song that always comes during the start of the rainy season. In addition, unlike many of the forest songsters of Costa Rica, the present bird has been familiar to the general population since the country's early history, thanks to the species tendency to live near houses and settlements. Agriculture is a major business in Costa Rica and the coming rainy season is very important to the success of the large number of people who rely on agriculture, so this now makes sense to us extanjeros.  On my early morning bike ride this morning I heard my first clay colored robin singing.  Very similar to our robins up north whose song signifies spring.  This beautiful song of a not so beautiful song bird is telling us the rains are not far off!  Pura Vida!