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It still happens quite a bit for me to not be able to identify a butterfly. This one I first thought was one of the tiny Metalmarks, but all the A-I identifiers puts in in the bigger Skipper family with the leading genuses being Staphylus, Quadrus, or Ouleus, but I still can’t find a match with all my butterfly books and online help. I will eventually post it and hope someone will identify it. Very small, less than an inch wingspan. Here’s three photos . . .
The little thumbnail-sized Hairstreaks are beginning to show up as the busier butterfly time starts in my garden. Just be aware that butterflies can be found all year long all over Costa Rica. iNaturalist has a chart for each species showing when the observations were found and every month has some highs, regardless of the winds and other factors including my garden’s May-October high season, which may be because I have more flowers then. 🙂
I’ve seen this little one several times as shown in my GALLERY: Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon ziba. And if you are a serious butterfly watcher here in Costa Rica, note that this species is very much like another, Strymon megarus (my gallery link), and the two are easily confused! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of my projects over the last few weeks has been to get all of my butterfly observation photos (11 years worth) in iNaturalist and I have nearly completed that tedious posting job with now over 1,500 observation posted on iNaturalist total, which beyond all my butterflies, I have also posted all of my dragonflies and I am in real time now posting other nature photos from day to day but not going back with my 11 year collections, like I just did with butterflies. 🙂
Now all of my Costa Rica butterfly photos will be on both iNaturalist and on butterfliesandmoths.org. Plus all bird photos on eBird and future birds on both. Contributing your image to these volunteer scientific sites will contribute to future research and hopefully the future preservation of many species. I recommend everyone to participate as they can. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This one in my Cecropia Tree seems to be shorter and fatter than most. 🙂 (Maybe he’s a pot-bellied old man like me!) 🙂 See my other photos from many places in my Gallery: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana. Or if you are a dinosaur-lover, you might like the mother gallery of that one: LIZARDS! Or maybe more-so, the CROCODILIANS! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This, like many yellows, is easily confused with other similar yellows, but what I’m labeling Dina Yellow, Pyrisita dina (my gallery link) is one I’ve seen a lot, especially in my garden.
¡Pura Vida!
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.
¡Pura Vida!
Another Central-America-only butterfly, the Hecale Longwing, Heliconius hecale (zuleika) (my gallery link) which I’ve seen all over Costa Rica, but like with most, there are more photos from my garden because I spend more time here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
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.
My photo gallery for Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, the most often seen hummingbird by me, all over Costa Rica. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This Leuce Yellow, Mariposa Amarilla Brasileña, Pyrisitia leuce (my gallery link) was a new species for me last year (2024) and now I am starting the 2025 butterfly season with that species! 🙂
One website calls this “Blurry-Striped Longtail,” but I think I prefer White-striped Longtail, Chioides catillus (my gallery link). Just this one shot here plus the feature photo at top. Go to that gallery for more shots in my garden the other day while still windy + more from last year.
¡Pura Vida!
And for you butterfly aficionados, yes, he is a lot like the Durantes Longtail, but without that white stripe! Plus he has a longer tail than any of the other Longtails, I think.
. . . 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. 🙂
