Collared Redstart

Myioborus torquatus

eBird gives this description for the Collared Redstart:  Small, active warbler with diagnostic yellow face, dark collar, and orange crown. Flashes white outer tail feathers while foraging for insects. Found in montane forest and edges, often in pairs. Follows mixed feeding flocks, often moving quickly through the middle levels of the trees. Sexes alike.

The Birds of the World website introduces the Collared Redstart with this descriptive information:  Collared Redstart is a brightly colored, highly animated warbler of southern Central America. Restricted to highland forests in Costa Rica and Panama, above 1500 meters, the species typically forages by fanning its high-contrast tail and flushing insects from vegetation and leaf litter, a normal mode of hunting for Myioborus “whitestarts”. Collared Redstart is gray above and yellow below with a rufous crown patch bordered by black, a gray breast band, and a black tail with white outer rectrices. Because of its flashy tail pattern and active foraging behavior, Collared Redstart generally is easy to find visually, but it also can be detected by ear by its sharp pick call or its song, a jumbled slur of trills and whistles.

I saw my first Collared Redstart on the morning of February 9, 2023, as our Tropical Birding group was making it’s way from Savegre to Cerro Del Muerte.  During our first stop near the Quetzal National Park we encountered this colorful little bird.  It did not stay put long, but I managed to get one photo that was sufficient for identification purposes.