“K,” my landlord up the hill from me came down the other day with a baby Chachalaca on his shoulder which their gardener found when trimming some trees. It was tiny then! And has bonded with the human family as his “mother” or family. They are hoping that when he can fly, he will fly off with the other Chachalacas. I hope so too! A large, adult Chachalaca will not make a good pet nor would it be good for the bird! We will see what happens. I suggested that another possibility is to take him to Rescate Animales in La Garita which recues wild animals and their babies. I’ll post a report when something significant happens. Here’s 3 cell phone pix:
Here he is on K’s arm.K’s Chachalaca baby in one of my shrubs, eating the leaves.And the baby bird on my arm! Sorry! I wasn’t dressed for a photo! 🙂
Not new to me or Atenas where I live, the Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus (linked to eBird) is a type of seedeater (the beak says that) and in this case prefers grasses which you can see the male chewing on in that photo. It is a Latin American bird found throughout Central America, in the Caribbean Islands and the northern edges of South America.
In my GALLERY: Yellow-faced Grassquit you can see that I’ve photographed this bird multiple times in Atenas, where I live, plus once in Monteverde and once near Volcán Tenorio.
These shots of a male and a female I got on my return walk back from Calle Nueva searching for butterflies last week. I got the female first in the cow pasture in front of my house where I also saw the male but had to follow him to a neighbor’s yard to get this shot of him . . .
MALE Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
The female shots are my first of a female Yellow-faced Grassquit, unless that one juvenile or immature in my gallery was a female! 🙂 And I am very pleased with this FEMALE shot (a portrait for the gallery!) . . .
. . . for my resident Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. And of course this Torch Ginger is just one of the many “Flower Restaurants” where he eats as I purposefully do not have feeders filled every day. It is more natural and healthier for the birds to eat from flowers. Here’s three shots from the other day in my garden . . .
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird on a Torch Ginger, “Bastón del Emperador,” Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaRufous-tailed Hummingbird on a Torch Ginger, “Bastón del Emperador,” Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaContinue reading “The “Flower Restaurant””
This Clay-colored Thrush, Yigüirro (my gallery link) was still singing after the rains started in April but they are here for sure now, almost every afternoon or evening, and he no longer needs to sing in the rain! 🙂
Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush singing in Atenas, Costa Rica as the rains start!
One of the common birds in my garden is the Rufous-backed Wren, Campylorhynchus capistratus (my gallery link) and here he is in the rain the other day, perched on a dead tree in a neighbor’s yard.
This tiny little guy is still the self-appointed king of my garden, doing his best to chase other birds away. But I still get the other two species of hummingbirds some, just mostly on the flowers and not the feeders.
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
My photo gallery for Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, the most often seen hummingbird by me, all over Costa Rica. 🙂
. . . for the rains to begin. And hopefully that will be any day now! (And maybe before this is posted, since I’m scheduling posts about a week ahead now.) 🙂 The National Bird of Costa Rica, known in English as the Clay-colored Thrush, is I think a handsome bird, even when not singing all day like he does every April. Here are three recent shots of different individuals and you can see more in my Gallery: Clay-colored Thrush, Turdus grayi. 🙂
Another competitor for my little Rufous-tailed Hummingbird who thinks he owns my garden is this Blue-vented Hummingbird, Saucerottia hoffmanni(my gallery link) and I haven’t seen him try to stop this larger deep-blue tailed hummingbird who has also been around my gardens since my first year here. You can read about him on eBird. A tropical bird found only in Costa Rica & Nicaragua with maybe a few strays into Honduras & El Salvador. 🙂 Or see more than 400 observations in Costa Rica on iNaturalist CR.
Here’s two shots recently on my Porterweed flowers. And yes, it is still windy, but these hummers have to eat every few minutes, regardless of the weather! And we all hope for the rains to start any day now and maybe then the winds will disappear! 🙂
Or it seems that I will do anything for one! 🙂 That is why I like going to the nature lodges where you can get closer to such colorful birds. Well, here are my step by step procedures for one of those many that come near my house (plus waiting for a blue sky!) 🙂 . . .
I never claim to be an authority on anything in nature, but my deductions of this photo on K’s fence the other day lead me to believe that it is a Juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. The three Saltators are the only birds this size with a “seedeater bill” (short/stubby fat) that also have the white eyebrow and little white line under the eye. Thus my deduction that it is a Saltator and because just 8 days ago I shared a photo of an adult Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (most common saltator here), I believe this one may be the offspring of that adult.
The Merlin AI identifier (eBird) is very good, but not on juveniles like this, and it just said it was “unable to identify” and the iNaturalist AI (also very good) said “not confident to identify” but then went on to give it’s first choice of “possible” species as a double-collared seedeater (Sporophila caerulescens) and that was also the first choice of Google Lens, but that species is South American and never sighted in Costa Rica, plus it does not have a white eyebrow and in my opinion not a good option! 🙂
I did find some juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltators online similar to this, and yes, many are darker or grayer than this one, but a few similar. Whew! Identification can be a lot of work! 🙂 So here it is, whatever it is . . .
I think it is a JUVENILE CINNAMON-BELLIED SALTATOR, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
See all of my photos of this species in Cinnamon-bellied Saltator Gallery which, by the way, was formerly called the “Grayish Saltator.”
