Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

Tigrisoma mexicanum

eBird gives this description for the Bare-Throated Tiger-Heron:  A large but rather short-legged, primal-looking heron of mangroves and freshwater marshes in tropical lowlands. Often in areas with trees, but also around ponds in rather open marshes. All plumages have naked yellow throat skin (not always easy to see), greenish legs. Adult has gray cheeks, finely barred plumage, and rusty thighs; immature is boldy barred blackish and warm brown (hence the name ‘tiger-heron’).

The Birds of the World website introduces the Bare-Throated Tiger-Heron with this descriptive information: Bare-throated Tiger-Heron is a medium-sized wading bird of Central America that reaches northwestern South America in Colombia and extreme northwestern Peru. While congeners might be found in more densely vegetated habitats, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron often forages in the open and feeds both on aquatic animals like fish and frogs as well as terrestrial rodents. Overall, the species is long and bittern-shaped with a bit more bulk, in the style of the night-herons.  Juveniles are strikingly barred black and rust throughout their bodies, whereas adults have a gray face with a black crown, spearlike black and yellow bill, grayish upperparts, and rufous underparts; a patch of bare skin on the throat gives the species its common name.

I saw my first Bare-throated Tiger-Heron on the morning of March 10, 2023, walking the grounds at Hotel Villa Lapas.  I wasn’t able to get a decent photo, because the bird was back-lit in the morning sun.  Later that afternoon on our boat tour, I got an excellent look and some great photos of this beautiful bird.