A more frequently seen “Yellow” than the one shown yesterday is this Dina Yellow, Pyrisitia dina (my gallery link), though this one is still just one of many! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Dina Yellow
Marcellina Sulphur
This is a new yellow butterfly for me this year with sightings in my garden in July, August & September as shown in the gallery Marcellina Sulphur, Phoebis marcellina. There are many different yellows as you can see in their “Family Gallery” of my photos: Pieridae – WHITES, YELLOWS & SULPHURS (40 species). I will never tire of all the unique species of butterflies found here in Costa Rica and the almost continuous finding of new species like this one. Tomorrow I will share a photo of a more common Yellow seen here, the Dina Yellow. But here is just one photo of the Marcellina Sulphur . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Boat-billed Flycatcher
At first I had these two photos lumped in with the Great Kiskadees, but eBird’s AI helped me realized that they have bigger bills and are shaped slightly different as Boat-billed Flycatcher, Megarynchus pitangua (linked to my gallery). Not as frequent but the last few in my gallery are from my garden. One photo . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Blue-gray Tanager
One of several birds that I’m seeing more of now, the Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus (my gallery link) lives all over Central America and the northern half of South America and is found literally everywhere in Costa Rica except the highest altitudes. He is similar to the grayish-green Palm Tanager and I have a lot of photos in the above linked gallery. Pictured here in my garden.
¡Pura Vida!
Variegated Squirrel
This is the species that lives in my garden and is the most common squirrel in Costa Rica (with 7 subspecies) and I see them in most places I visit here, including different colors. In my gallery you can see my photos of 3 other species as well as this most common one, each species in their own gallery 🙂 . . .
- Alfaro’s or Central American Pygmy Squirrel (just 1 photo from Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverde)
- Deppe’s Squirrel (3 photos, also at Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverde, my favorite reserve in Monteverde, where I also get the most species of birds in Monteverde!) 🙂
- Red-tailed Squirrel (the 2nd most numerous for me with a dozen photos from 7 different locations across Costa Rica on both slopes, though considered “non-native”.)
- Variegated Squirrel, (49 photos from 12 locations across Costa Rica, including both slopes and more than one subspecies or color-combinations.)
- The only two of these that are “native” to Costa Rica are Deppe’s and the Variegated. The other 2 are “introduced” or “migrants,” kind of like me! 🙂
Just this one photo here. Go to gallery for more.
¡Pura Vida!
Wind’s Skipper
Seen in my garden before, another big brown, fuzzy Skipper that at times seem like the majority of the butterflies! 🙂 I’ve had this one in my garden one other time, back in 2023 as shown in my gallery: Wind’s Skipper, Windia windi. (Linked to the gallery.)
Great Kiskadee
One of the old regulars in my garden seems to always make a good picture, the Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus (my gallery link) and is almost always here! Found from Mexico to South America. Here’s one on the powerline.
¡Pura Vida!
Difficult to Identify
This is one of those that are almost impossible to identify with no matches in any of my sources of those spots and other characteristics. The AI called Google Lens is for the entire world and on difficult individuals like this one, they might call it a butterfly that lives only in Asia or Africa, so not as helpful on ones like this as they are on very unique and unusual insects they can find another photo of. So far, iNaturalista’s AI is the most helpful on butterflies, but not always. In the case of this one, as far as they will go in identification is to put it in the Hesperini Tribe which is pretty broad or general. As I write this, I haven’t yet posted these photos on iNaturalist yet. But when I do there is a real possibility that one of the experts who have devoted their lives to butterflies will have an identification, but not always. Here’s three photos of this Skipper Butterfly that I cannot ID:
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
And the most common hummingbird in my garden is this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl (my gallery link). Fairly common from Mexico to northern South America at multiple altitudes.
¡Pura Vida!
Dorantes Longtail
There are a lot of these around my garden as you can see in the gallery: Dorantes Longtail, Cecropterus dorantes.
¡Pura Vida!