Category: Birds

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Great Curassow

The other big forest bird (like the guans shown earlier) is the Great Curassow (my gallery link) and the first photo is of two females and a second photo of one male. Note that the male is mostly black like the guans, but has a bright yellow bump on his beak while the male Crested Guan has a red waddle. And interestingly to me is that the Curassows have bigger crests than the Crested Guans with crest in their name. 🙂 The above linked gallery has better photos than these two. I guess I’m getting “rusty” or “slow on the draw” as an action photographer! The birds wait for no one and never pose! 🙂

2 Female Great Curassow, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
1 Male Great Curassow, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Yellow-throated Euphonia

Just one of many photos with more available in the gallery: Yellow-throated Euphonia (linked).

Yellow-throated Euphonia, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica. One of the birds from my cabin’s back porch!

¡Pura Vida!

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Crested Guan

This large bird is one good sign that you are in a truly wild forest. I always see them at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and also at Arenal Observatory Lodge, two of my other favorite places! See my photo collection in the gallery: Crested Guan. (linked) Just the one shot for the blog post today . . .

Crested Guan, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Pura Vida

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Immature White-collared Manakin

At first I wondered what these pudgy little brown birds were in a tree behind my cabin. Then on eBird’s Merlin I discovered that they are little White-collared Manakins with no white collar yet if male and if female that brown will turn green with a yellowish breast and the females don’t have white collars like the males. See more photos of these juveniles and my photos of mature males in the gallery White-collared Manakin (linked). I’ve seen them twice now at Maquenque and once at Selva Verde Lodge (across the river in their private forest reserve).

Immature White-collared Manakin, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Collared Aracari

This small toucan, Collared Aracari (my gallery link) is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope of Costa Rica but it is possible to see one on the Pacific Slope occasionally where his close “cousin” the Fiery-billed Aracari (my gallery link) lives only on the Pacific Slope.

Collared Aracari, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
Collared Aracari, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Yellow-throated Toucan

With several tourists here from around the world, it seems that one of the first things they want to see is a toucan, and the boldest one here is this Yellow-throated Toucan (my gallery link). Here’s two slightly different views with neither showing his patch of red, but still a handsome bird! We are on the Caribbean Slope here, where this Yellow-throated is more common than the Keel-billed which is more common on the Pacific Slope. Tomorrow I will share another variety of toucans which also has a different “cousin” on the Pacific Slope.

Yellow Throated Toucan, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
Yellow Throated Toucan, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Lodge Tonight

Today I will travel for about 4 hours to one of my favorite lodges and best birding place, Maquenque Eco Lodge (their link) near the Nicaragua border in Boca Tapada, San Carlos Canton, Alajuela Province, almost directly north of where I live in the center of the country. It will be my 6th trip there and 3rd time to celebrate my birthday there, which is July 4 and this year number 86! 🙂

3 years ago I planted an Avocado Tree there to help the endangered Green Macaws at Maquenque.

I may or may not do a post tonight from there, but otherwise a daily post from Maquenque reporting on my nature finds there for the next 5 days and as always a few more days after a trip. This will be my 6th time at Maquenque with, of course, lots of photos and a “Trip Gallery” from every visit there . . .

Continue reading “Maquenque Lodge Tonight”
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Fledgling Yellow-faced Grassquit

And that is a “Most Likely” identification from iNaturalist and eBird with a definite from Google Lens. 🙂 I photographed it outside the gate of Roca Verde in Barrio Boquerón and we do have a lot of adult Yellow-faced Grassquits here, especially around the cow pasture, so it is a pretty safe ID. 🙂 See photos of adults in my gallery Yellow-faced Grassquit (linked).

Fledgling Yellow-faced Grassquit, Barrio Boquerón, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Pale-vented Thrush – A Lifer!

“A Lifer” means “first time seen species” and this is my first new bird in quite a while! (# 189 in my CR bird gallery) 🙂 He was on the ground in my garden (or front yard) and I first thought it was a young Yigüirro – Clay-colored Thrush (and it is possible that he actually is), but it is instead the iNat AI says it is a juvenile or immature Pale-vented Thrush, and I’m going with that. As they get older they lose those two rows of little orange spots and the belly turns whitish. In Costa Rica they are seen only in the low foothills of the Central Valley (like where I live), so not your every day bird all over Costa Rica! 🙂 And I got only one useable photo the first sighting (read on for the better 2nd sighting) . . .

Pale-vented Thrush Juvenile, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Then, the next day, I saw this same juvenile in a tree waiting for Mom to come feed him as you can see that she did in these two shots the day after the above photo . . .

Continue reading “Pale-vented Thrush – A Lifer!”