Sandpipers Roosting in a Tamarindo Mangrove Estuary

Tamarindo's estuary, fed by the Tamarindo River, holds one of Guanacaste's last intact mangrove systems, protected since 1995 under Las Baulas National Marine Park. The tangled red and black mangrove roots here trap sediment and shelter juvenile fish, crabs, and mollusks that draw wintering shorebirds such as sandpipers and plovers south from North America each year. These birds rely on the tidal flats for foraging at low tide and use exposed branches and roots as resting perches between feeding cycles. The estuary sits adjacent to Punta San Francisco Beach, within a few kilometers of the surf town of Tamarindo itself.