# Guanacaste Dry Forest Camera Traps Catch Rainforest Birds

> Biologist Vincent Losasso's camera traps at the Horizontes Experimental Forest Station, in Guanacaste's tropical dry forest, filmed three birds normally linked to humid forests and wetlands: a rufous-vented ground-cuckoo, an agami heron and a pair of green ibises. He described the records in The Tico Times on March 9, 2026, as a reminder that range maps are approximations, not hard borders.

Source: https://pura-verde.com/news/camera-traps-birds-beyond-range/
Last checked: 2026-10-30

Three birds that "belong" in Costa Rica's wet forests have turned up on camera in the dry northwest. Biologist Vincent Losasso, who runs camera traps around the country, recorded a rufous-vented ground-cuckoo, an agami heron and a pair of green ibises at the Horizontes Experimental Forest Station in Guanacaste's tropical dry forest. He wrote about the finds in [a first-person piece for The Tico Times](https://ticotimes.net/2026/03/09/costa-rica-camera-trap-records-birds-far-beyond-their-expected-range) published on March 9, 2026.

## Where the cameras were

Horizontes is a forest research station within the [Guanacaste Conservation Area](https://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/), the UNESCO World Heritage site in Costa Rica's northwest best known for its tropical dry forest. The station is part of the conservation area's restoration and silviculture program, where researchers study how native dry-forest trees regrow. For more places where scientists work in Costa Rica's forests, see our guide to [biological research stations](/biological-research-stations-costa-rica/).

Losasso set one camera on a forest puddle and another above a puddle beside a clear stream. In the dry season, those few spots of standing water draw in everything that's thirsty, which is exactly why camera trappers watch them.

## The three surprises

**Rufous-vented ground-cuckoo.** This big, long-tailed cuckoo walks the forest floor, often trailing army ant swarms or herds of peccaries to snap up insects and small animals they flush. It's usually tied to large, intact humid forest. Losasso wrote that he'd recorded it only a handful of times before, in wet forest in Limón and around Tenorio Volcano National Park, and was floored to find one on his dry-forest camera. Because the species needs big unbroken forest and tends to vanish when forest is fragmented, any record in a new habitat is worth noting.

**Agami heron.** This shy, chestnut-and-green heron with an unusually long bill hunts in shaded swamps, mangroves and forest streams. In Costa Rica it's associated with the Caribbean lowlands and the Golfo Dulce area of the Osa Peninsula. Losasso said a camera watching a dry-forest puddle caught one a few months before his article ran, something he never expected.

**Green ibis.** A pair of these dark, glossy ibises showed up at the stream camera the week before publication. Losasso described the spot as well outside their known Costa Rican range, which runs across the northern lowlands and down the Caribbean side. He'd placed that camera hoping to film otters, and in a month of footage got none.

## What it does and doesn't tell us

These are individual camera records, not a formal study. Losasso's article doesn't give a count of cameras or video clips, and it doesn't claim the birds live at Horizontes year-round. A single visit could be a wanderer, a bird moving along a stream during the dry season, or a sign that suitable pockets of habitat exist where maps don't show them.

His own takeaway was modest. A species' range map, he wrote, is "more of an approximation rather than something set in stone." That's a useful reminder for birders and planners alike. Range maps are built from past sightings, and places that few people watch closely can stay blank for years.

Records like these also show why connected forest matters. Streams with intact riverside forest act as routes that let wet-forest animals move through drier country. The same idea drives Nosara's new [voluntary wildlife corridor](/news/nosara-voluntary-biological-corridor/).

## A tough year for the dry forest

Guanacaste's dry forest had a hard 2026. The province led a record forest fire season, and a lightning-sparked fire burned thousands of hectares of wetland in Palo Verde National Park. You can read about that in our coverage of [Guanacaste's forest fires](/news/guanacaste-forest-fires-2026/). Camera-trap work like Losasso's builds a baseline of what lives in these forests, which helps show what's lost and what comes back after fire.

## Who's behind the cameras

Losasso is a wildlife biologist and the founder of [Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring](https://guanacastewildlifemonitoring.com/), which sets up camera-trap monitoring for private reserves, hotels, development projects and landowners. The company also runs guided camera-trap outings with the Horizontes station, and it says part of those fees supports conservation there. He writes regularly about his footage for The Tico Times. For another camera-trap story, see [the jaguar named Encanto who reappeared in Osa](/news/jaguar-encanto-osa-camera-trap/).

If you want to explore Guanacaste's protected forests yourself, start with our [nature reserves map](/#reserve).

## Frequently asked questions

### Where is the Horizontes Experimental Forest Station?
It's a research station in Guanacaste, in northwest Costa Rica, and part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area. It's dedicated to tropical dry forest research and restoration.

### Where do agami herons live in Costa Rica?
They're usually found in shaded swamps, mangroves and forest streams in the Caribbean lowlands and around the Golfo Dulce on the Osa Peninsula, which is why a dry-forest sighting stood out.

### Is the rufous-vented ground-cuckoo rare?
It's hard to see and depends on large, unbroken humid forest. It often follows army ants and peccaries on the forest floor, so camera traps are one of the best ways to detect it.

### Why do camera traps find birds outside their range?
Range maps are built from past sightings. Cameras watch quiet spots like puddles around the clock, so they can catch birds in places people rarely look.