If Guanacaste picked one bird for the flag it would be this. Locals call it the pájaro bobo, the silly bird, because it sits so still and so exposed on a wire or a post that you could almost walk up to it.
Where you’ll see it
Gardens, roadsides, fence lines and forest edges across the dry northwest. It is a bird of open dry forest and does very well around people. Look for something the size of a jay sitting very upright on a low perch, then look for the tail.
What to know
The racquet tail is the giveaway. A bare shaft with a paddle of feather at the end, which the bird swings slowly from side to side. It hunts insects and small lizards from a perch, dropping onto them and returning. It nests in tunnels dug into earth banks. It is the national bird of both Nicaragua and El Salvador, and the unofficial one of this province.
