Category: Birds

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Yesterday’s Birds

When on these National Park trips I always get behind in sharing my photos because I am so busy in these wonderful nature places and have so many photos to process it is difficult to keep up. But here’s photos of 18 of the 24 species photographed with the other 6 photos not worth sharing! 🙂 Actually the Long-billed Gnatwren photo is not worth sharing, but since it is one of 4 “Lifers” yesterday, I feel compelled to “prove” I saw it! 🙂

And I know that yesterday I said that the Bicolored Antbird was my only “Lifer” (first time seen bird) but I still had not gone through all the 700+ photos and discovered that I actually had 4 lifers on this hike (plus I had another Lifer Monday not a part of this count: the Emerald Tanager) plus a “first in Costa Rica,” meaning I have photos of it from some other country. Yesterday’s 4 Lifers are:

  1. Bicolored Antbird
  2. Spotted Antbird
  3. Long-billed Gnatwren
  4. Carmiol’s Tanager

My sighting/photo of the immature Cinnamon Becard was my “first time in Costa Rica,” though I made photos of an adult Cinnamon Becard on one of my Panama trips.

Remember that it was cloudy and raining all day yesterday, making photography very difficult, (interestingly it was sunny all day today and I saw fewer birds!) but here’s one photo of each species except the Rufous-winged Tanager where I include one of both the male and the female since they are so different. CLICK image to enlarge:

  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Spotted Antbird
  • Red-legged Honeycreeper
  • Black-stripped Sparrow
  • Great Curassow Male
  • Palm Tanager
  • Crested Guan
  • Yellow-throated Toucan
  • Carmiol’s Tanager
  • Summer Tanager
  • Crimson-collared Tanager
  • Cinnamon Becard Immature
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager
  • Black Phoebe
  • Pale-billed Woodpecker
  • Long-billed Gnatwren
  • Bay-headed Tanager Male
  • Rufous-winged Tanager Female
  • Rufous-winged Tanager Male
And notice that there is an overlap of only 4 birds with my first day list. 🙂

And there is always my Costa Rica Birds Gallery!

“What I saw was just one eye
In the dawn as I was going:
A bird can carry all the sky
In that little button glowing.

Never in my life I went
So deep into the firmament.”

― Harold Monro

¡Pura Vida!

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Bicolored Antbird – Another “Lifer”

For most people it would be a horrible day with almost constant rain, but my all morning birding hike with breakfast break was good for me including this one “Lifer” or first-time seen bird.

I still don’t have a count of how many birds I photographed in the terrible light, but I will report on that tomorrow. Nestor says he saw or heard 82 species and I’m sure I didn’t see half that number, but will tell tomorrow. The selfie here is me with Nestor, my guide.

This Bicolored Antbird is my first to see or photograph and my second Lifer on this trip. Learn more about him at the eBird Description. CLICK below images to enlarge:

  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
  • Bicolored Antbird
Today’s Lifer

See all my birds in my CR Birds Gallery.


“Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

¡Pura Vida!

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1st 24 Hours of Birds

My birding hikes are not until tomorrow, so these 20 species I got on my own and wanted to get them out before what I hope will be some new or different birds with Guide Nestor whom I’ve had on both of my previous trips here. He is good! They always ask if you have any target birds for the hike and I will tell him the same thing I did last year, “Yes, the Umbrella Bird and the Yellow-eared Toucanet.” These are both fairly rare birds and difficult to find in the thick forest and I want to add them to my collection. 🙂 But I won’t get my hopes up!

I just hope we don’t have rain tomorrow morning like we have had most of today. Here we are on the Caribbean Slope which tends to have more rain than the Pacific slope where I live. But it is still the beginning of the dry season here with less rain than they’ve had the last 6 months. We will bird from 6-8 AM, have breakfast, then the rest of the morning. So I’m hopeful with a half day with a birding guide I will get lots of birds!

Now a slide show of the last 24 hours of birds on my own with two shots of Scarlet-rumped Tanager because the male and female are totally different and two of the Brown Jay with one flying and the other perched; 22 shots of 20 species including my “lifer” I introduced yesterday:

  • Turkey Vulture
  • Great Curassow Male
  • Green Honeycreeper Female
  • Palm Tanager
  • Golden Hooded Tanager
  • Montezuma Oropendola
  • Clay-colored Thrush – Yigüirro
  • Red-billed Pigeon
  • Crested Guan
  • Silver-throated Tanager
  • Bananaquit
  • Baltimore Oriole Female
  • Blue-gray Tanager
  • Yellow-throated Euphonia, Female
  • Brown Jay
  • Brown Jay
  • Collared Aracari
  • Buff-throated Saltator
  • Tropical Kiingbird
  • Emerald Tanager
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Male
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Female

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

“The bird who dares to fall is the bird who learns to fly.”

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Lifer” in first afternoon

I arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge in time for lunch with my driver and my first afternoon of looking for birds with 11 species photographed including the above Emerald Tanager (link to eBird description) which is a “Lifer” or first-time-seen bird for me! And a colorful one found only in Central America plus Columbia & Ecuador.

I did lots of walking including to the top of the 28 meters or 92 ft. tall observation tower with 146 steps on stairs. I’ve gotten lots of birds and monkeys from this tower in the past, but not today with it being overcast and very windy when I went up today, but I got several landscape shots including this one I call “A Sea of Treetops.”

My “Sea of Treetops” shot today from the top of Arenal Observatory’s observation tower.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

¡Pura Vida!

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The “Sculptured” INCA DOVE

To me, this second most common dove/pigeon around my house looks sculptured, almost as if he were carved out of wood. Read eBird on Inca Doves for more information or to see more of my many photos, my Inca Dove Gallery with some better photos.

 “Every bird, every tree, every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.”

– Marty Rubin

Costa Rica launches crowdfunding campaign for reforestation ~A Tico Times article

¡Pura Vida!

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“The Robin” of Costa Rica

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush (eBird link) in English (at one time called “Clay-colored Robin”) is one of the most common birds in Costa Rica, found everywhere, and is also the National Bird, not because of his/her beauty or color (we have so many more colorful), but because he/she sings so beautifully in late April and early May before the rainy season begins. Tradition is that the Yigüirro sings in the rain every year and thus is loved by farmers and gardeners alike and became the national bird.

This weak photo is of a juvenile or young adult made on that cloudy overcast day. They vary in color from this rich dark brown to a lighter brown with a lighter colored breast, sort of creamy white and more rarely a touch of yellow, but always that same beak! I’m calling it “The Robin of Costa Rica” BECAUSE it is as common here as the American Robin (my gallery) was during my days in the States. 🙂

The top link is to an eBird article on them or you can see many better photos in my Clay-colored Thrush – Yigüirro Gallery. Happy birding! 🙂

 “Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?”

— Nature historian David Attenborough

Why plant trees?

¡Pura Vida!

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2 “Rare” Birds in Neighborhood

At least “Merlin,” my eBird identifier says they are “rare” for this location, though I know there are manakins in Atenas and I have seen the grosbeak in nearby Alajuela, so I don’t think they are really that rare here! 🙂 They are a female Long-tailed Manakin (feature photo) and an immature or female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. And I believe the latter is an immature male because another poorer photo shows a touch of rose color coming on the breast and the females do not have that. NOTE: The name links above are to eBird descriptions. You can also see more of my photos of these in my bird GALLERIES: Long-tailed Manakin and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak galleries.

It was an overcast morning with no good light, thus the poor quality images when against the sky:

  • Long-tailed Manakin Female
  • Rose-breasted Grosbeak Immature

Reusing, recycling, rethinking ~The Washington Post Article

¡Pura Vida!

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“Bully” Woodpecker?

The featured photo above is a Lineated Woodpecker pecking away on a woodpecker hole that I think was already there with him enlarging it. It’s uphill from my house yesterday morning, an overcast day not really good for photos. But I tried anyway. Then along comes the smaller Hoffman’s Woodpecker (below photos) making a big fuss with the bigger woodpecker. I’m guessing that the hole was maybe the smaller bird’s home and he was fussing at the bigger “bully” taking over his home. I don’t know that for sure, but he was sure making a lot of noise and ruffling his feathers threateningly while the larger bird just kept working, ignoring the smaller bird. So, does another bully take over?

Hoffman’s Woodpecker fussing at bigger Lineated Woodpecker.

“The smaller the creature, the bolder its spirit.”

― Suzy Kassem

See my galleries for both the Lineated Woodpecker and the Hoffman’s Woodpecker photographed all over Costa Rica with much better images than these! 🙂

The world’s rich need to cut their carbon footprint by a factor of 30 to slow climate change, U.N. warns !The Washington Post

¡Pura Vida!

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Country Lane Birds

I’ve been walking that route with only my cell phone as a camera and the other day missed a beautiful Squirrel Cuckoo bird in a tree that my big camera would have caught. Thus yesterday morning I went with my big camera and no cuckoo! But I did get rough shots of these four. The feature photo is a Great-tailed Grackle and the other 3 are labeled in the slideshow. It is not as good a place for birds as up the hill from my house, but I tried! 🙂

  • Great Kiskadee
  • White-winged Dove
  • Grayish Saltator
  • Great-tailed Grackle

See my BIRDS Galleries or my COUNTRY LANE Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Fiery-billed Aracari — A Costa Rica Bird

On yesterday morning’s walk this was one of the few birds seen and the only one that really interested me, a Fiery-billed Aracari, maybe a young adult or older juvenile because he seemed smaller than many of the others I’ve seen. This one was just 3 doors up from my house and solo which is unusual. I’ve had them on my terrace only once and they are known as a Pacific coast only bird, though Atenas is just an hour drive from that coast. The very similar Collared Aracari is considered an Atlantic Coast or Caribbean-side bird and he too comes into the Central Valley sometimes. Read more about this one on the e-Bird Fiery-billed Aracari page. And/or see my Fiery-billed Aracari Gallery with the best shots made on my terrace the one time they came. This bird is in the toucan family (a smaller cousin) and almost exclusively found in Costa Rica with a few in Panama along the Costa Rica border, also on the Pacific side only.

Fiery-billed Aracari, a Toucan found exclusively in Costa Rica.

“What I saw was just one eye
In the dawn as I was going:
A bird can carry all the sky
In that little button glowing.

Never in my life I went
So deep into the firmament.”

― Harold Monro

¡Pura Vida!