A loud, rolling, gurgling song from a thorn tree by the road, and then two or three big wrens pop up in turn to see what you are. They are inquisitive, noisy and never alone.
Where you’ll see it
Dry forest, scrub, hedgerows and gardens across Guanacaste. This is a bird of the Pacific dry country and it is common here. Look for the rust-coloured nape and the bold eye stripe.
What to know
Rufous-naped wrens live in family groups that sing together and defend a territory together. The nest is a bulky domed structure, and the favourite site is inside a bullhorn acacia, whose resident ants sting anything that brushes the branches. The wrens tolerate the ants, the ants tolerate the wrens, and very few predators care to find out why.
