If you don’t know, “Lapas” is Spanish for plural “Macaws,” and in Costa Rica the Scarlet Macaws (Lapas Rojas) are found only on the Pacific Slope. (The critically endangered Green Macaw is only on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica.) This particular parrot, Scarlet Macaw, Ara macao, (eBird link) is greater in number and found throughout Central America and Northern South America, and though at one time listed as endangered, they have now recovered with the help of nesting boxes to replace the big old trees with holes they nested in that humans cut down for lumber and cow pastures. But the other Macaw, Green Macaw (Lapa Verde) is found only in Central America in low numbers and is listed as Critically Endangered for the same human reasons!
If you stay long enough at Villa Lapas Hotel and keep walking through the gardens and grounds you will see Scarlet Macaws there, either flying over, stopping in an Almond Tree for their favorite food, or just stopping in other trees to rest and socialize as these I photographed on the “Early Bird Hike” before breakfast my first morning there. Here are 4 of the dozens of shots I made, and as is usual with photographing birds in trees, I struggled with the shadows, “de-shadowing” as much as I could. 🙂 You can see more of my photos of this species in my Scarlet Macaw Gallery. Here’s 4 shots from Tuesday morning at Villa Lapas, Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica . . .
