Chestnut-capped Brushfinch

Arremon brunneinucha

eBird offers this description of the Chestnut-capped Brushfinch:  Fairly stocky, sparrowlike bird of highland forests. Occurs mainly in humid evergreen and pine-oak forest understory, often in brushy flower banks and shady canyons, where typically skulking and difficult to see well. Feeds on or near the ground, usually in pairs. White throat stands out against black cheeks and narrow black breast band (birds of Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, lack breast band); also note narrow tawny eyebrow and dark rusty cap. Collared Towhee is larger and brighter with big black collar and whitish eyebrow.

The Birds of the World website introduces this bird with this descriptive information:  The Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch is a very widely distributed species, being found from Mexico south throughout Middle America and thence through the Andes and related mountain chains, south as far as southernmost Peru. It is easily identified throughout most of this broad range by its combination of chestnut crown, black mask and breast-band (although some subspecies lack the latter), white below, and olive-colored upperparts. Like several other brush-finches, it is generally common but not easily seen because of its liking for densely vegetated areas and its predominantly terrestrial behavior. One of several species of Arremon that was recently transferred to this genus from Atlapetes; all of them retain the vernacular name of brush-finch, to distinguish them from the more ‘traditional’ occupants of the genus, all of which are known as ‘sparrows’.

I met my first Chestnut-capped Brushfinch on the late afternoon of February 8, 2023, at the Paraiso Lodge in Costa Rica.  I was near the lower hummingbird station when I briefly saw this bird below the large trough feeder near the station.  A distinctive and beautiful bird!