Antbird facts
From Mexico to Argentina ranging in almost all altitudes of tropical and subtropical regions of America with more than 230 species.
Antbirds are elusive, secretive, and extremely beautiful. In Costa Rica, this large group of passerines are located in mid and low elevations of both slopes, from north to south. A family of birds adapted to follow a unique group of ground-dwelling ants known as Army ants. A marching nomad colony of hundreds of thousands of soldiers ready to dismantle all kinds of arthropods, small reptiles and amphibians can also be a target but not as often.
This large colony moves in the darkness of the rainforest floors steering all foliage litter in hopes to find spiders, caterpillars, grasshoppers and many other creepy crawlies.
Antbirds follow their entire life in this organised rainforest “mafia”; they perch very low in the ground scouting for anything that moves, and with the help of the ant troops they are rather successful. Thousands of creatures get hunted by these amazing birds; following the army of ants from daylight to crepuscular time. Very seldom do these birds eat ants. They find more appealing meals running away.
Birders from all countries on the face of the earth dream are to find army ants because they know there will be all birds they wish to see. Many individuals show up to the feast, Antbirds, Antwrens, Antpittas, Antthrushes, Cuckoos, Woodpeckers, Orioles, Manakins, Woodcreepers, toucans, and even some raptors would join for a fatty juicy bug.
In Costa Rica is common to find these ants and their birds along the national parks and private preserves such as El Bosque Eterno de los Niños, Ecological Sanctuary, Arenal Sky Trek, Tenorio Volcano at Heliconias Lodge, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Corcovado National Park, Tapanti National Park and the closest places to San Jose Carara National Park & Braulio Carrillo at Quebrada Gonzales.
In a good site, more than 30 species of birds can join and at the highest peak of the activity, even the best birders would get overwhelmed. None can stand the massive chaos of jumping antbirds, gliding woodcreepers and running bugs.
A true joy to all birders, photographers and of course scientists.
Here we would like to share our latest encounter and a few inspirational words.
At 600 meters above sea level near El Castillo de Arenal between Arenal Observatory Lodge and the lake, an amazing rainforest track is located and managed by Sky Trek Adventures. Although we don’t really visit this site for ziplining we rather go hiking on their trails for birds and other wildlife. It’s also pretty amazing for macro photography but very few people are aware of it. We captured awesome photos of leaf-cutting ants, coatis, Eye lashed Pitvipers, dozens of unknown insects, etc.
While guiding a private 3-day photography tour we were supposed to take a hike for 3 hours but in reality, it took us 3 hours to leave the parking lot of all stuff we were taking photos. After 3 short hours we finally made it into the trail 4 minutes they closed it lol.. The girl at the desk look at us and say ok but you only have 2 hours left. So we rushed to the rainforest and we barely walked 300 meters. Antbirds were everywhere. Spotted Antbird was the first one found and from then on we went back and forth a thousand times to get the rest of the species. A large list of other birds rather than Formiciliadae appeared. Still, our main focus was on the Ocellated, Bicolored, Zeledon’s and of course, the always-dreamed Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo that sadly we could not get a decent moment to photograph it. By the lapse of 2 + hours, neither of us was able to continue chasing birds, our cameras did their job and we realized that the very best lenses for such encounters are the following:
300 mm F4 from Nikon and 200-600 F6.3 of Sony. Although we had 600 mm F4 and 500 mm F4 mounted over tripods we could not keep up with the activity and with the banquet of insects and spiders being devoured.
