Yellow-thighed Brushfinch

Atlapetes tibialis

eBird provides this description of the Yellow-thighed Brushfinch:  Unique sooty-gray bird with odd yellow tufts of feathers at the base of each leg. Darker black on head and wings. Rather hefty and long-tailed with sizable conical bill. Typically found close to the ground, working through low tangles and bushes in pairs or small groups. Prefers forest and edges. Sexes alike; juveniles lack yellow but overall color diagnostic (and usually in group with adults).

The Birds of the World website introduces this bird with this descriptive information:  The aptly named Yellow-thighed Finch is a common understory bird of montane tropical wet forests above 1200 m. It is a true Central American endemic, found only in Costa Rica and western Panamá. Traveling in social groups and multi-species flocks, it feeds on nectar, insects, spiders, berries and proteinaceous Müllerian bodies. This finch readily pursues its diverse prey items out of the forest understory, into pastures, gardens and along forest edges, flicking its tail often. It wears a sooty, slaty gray on its back and underparts, and a deep black on its wings, long tail, head and throat. Its notable bright yellow thighs almost glow, contrasting sharply with the bird’s dark remainder. Its songs are a jumbled mix of bubbly whistles and buzzes, repeated rapidly at length. In Spanish, it is called cerquero musliamarillo, sabanero de piernas amarillas, or saltón de muslos amarillos. Yellow-thighed Finch, and likely the congeneric Yellow-green Finch (P. luteoviridis), are closely related to the Atlapetes brush-finches and to Large-footed Finch (Pezopetes capitalis).

I met and photographed my first Yellow-thighed Brushfinch while walking along the Savegre River in the Talmanca Mountains of Costa Rica on February 8, 2023.  Later that afteroon I also got a glimpse of this bird at the Paraiso Lodge lower hummingbird station feed trough.  What a distincitive and interesting little bird!