Spotted Again: The Barred Hawk Near Town

Not long ago, a resident at La Rambla looked up and spotted an unexpected visitor perched nearby: a Barred Hawk. Now, it seems this striking bird has made another appearance.

Recently, the team at La Estancia came across a Barred Hawk as well, giving us another chance to admire a species that is not often spotted around Town. With its dark head and chest, finely barred white underparts, and unmistakable presence, it is the kind of bird that makes you stop whatever you are doing and look a little closer.

Barred Hawks (Morphnarchus princeps) are birds of prey found from Costa Rica south into parts of South America. They are more commonly associated with humid foothill and mountain forests, where they spend much of their time among the canopy and forest edges. That makes an encounter here all the more interesting, especially when it happens more than once.

And perhaps that is one of the loveliest things about wildlife sightings like this one. The first encounter may feel like pure luck, but then another person sees the same species from a different corner of Town, and little by little these individual moments become something shared. Residents, team members, walkers, runners, and anyone paying attention become part of an informal collection of observations of the animals moving through the landscape around us.

We may never know whether this was the very same Barred Hawk spotted near La Rambla or simply another individual passing through. Either way, we are very happy someone happened to be looking in the right direction.

So, next time you are walking through Town, take a second to look up. You never quite know who might be watching from the branches above.