Category: Birds

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Two New Galleries

I have completed two new photo galleries from my recent trip to Maquenque. Of course the Maquenque Gallery is the biggest with most photos, but we stopped for coffee in Cinchona on the way back home and in 15 to 20 minutes I photographed 6 birds with two of them “Lifers” (new to me)! And of course the San Fernando Waterfall! And since it is a totally different location than Maquenque and my travel galleries are about locations – two galleries! 🙂

You have been getting samples or teasers on the blog (with 4 more to go through the 22nd) while this is the real collection from my #1 birding lodge and photos of 61 species this trip! Plus photos of lots of other nature! Check it out! And similar to the blog, you click photos to enlarge or sometimes open a sub-gallery for that bird or topic.

Maquenque Eco-Lodge, July 2020 Gallery

And the separate gallery for our coffee break stop on the way home at Soda & Mirador Cinchona for a waterfall and 6 birds, 2 of which are “Lifers” for me!

And in the interest of Coronavirus Safety I have no more trips planned until the middle of September, my annual Caribe Beach trip to Hotel Banana Azul where I will again be a “loner” doing things “solo” for safety. This place is more about relaxation than serious birding but there will be birds! 🙂 And solo walks on the beach searching for nature gems! And always enjoying someone else’s cooking! And reading! 🙂

And FYI, because of some spikes in Coronavirus cases, Costa Rica has shut down again until maybe August with no bars and restaurants only for “take out” or para llevar! (Or delivery, called “express” here.)

And even the banks were closed this week! I hope not next week as I’m trying to renew my residency! And for two weeks at least, private cars are allowed on the road for only 1 day a week based on tag number. We take the virus seriously here! And most of us wear masks. The borders are still closed to everyone until announced otherwise. They had hoped for limited border openings in August but that is not looking likely now, especially for Americans, the most infected country in the world! (Love your money but not your virus!) 🙂

Stay safe everyone and wear your mask!

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Pigeons & Doves

Much more interesting than than those city park pigeons pooping on the statues (though some statues deserve it) are the 32 species of pigeons and doves in Central America! I have photos of 13 of those species in my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery, meaning I have a ways to go in this group! 🙂 And I got usable photos of only 3 at Maquenque with none being new for me. CLICK a photo to enlarge. I think all are beautiful!

  • White-tipped Dove
  • Pale-vented Pigeon
  • Short-billed Pigeon

I just completed my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque’s Small Birds

“Small” is relative and normally would have included the Honeycreepers and Hummingbirds which came in earlier posts. And of course these two swallows could have also been with the Wetland Birds. I’m just trying to spread out the many bird photos from Manquenque.

The smallest birds are fun to see and try to photo, though difficult in rainforest shadows and often overcast skies. Here’s my efforts with these 6 and go back to see the Honeycreepers, Hummingbirds, and Wetland Birds if you missed those posts and like birds! 🙂 CLICK an image to enlarge.

  • Black-crowned Tityra
  • Variable Seedeater
  • Long-tailed Tyrant
  • Northern Rough-winged Swallow
  • Olive-backed Euphonia
  • Mangrove Swallow

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for more about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Woodpeckers, Woodcreeper, Thrush & Wren

Okay – an odd combination! 🙂 But I’m trying not to show too many birds at one time as I continue to share the many birds I photographed at Maquenque.

My collection from the past has much better images of the Pale-billed Woodpecker but I’m lucky to have even this shot, shooting through the jungle vines, limbs, leaves to a distant and constantly moving bird – but the pale -billed is not seen that often and I wanted to include him.

The woodcreeper was also difficult to shoot among the trees but I lucked into just this one decent shot (if enlarged). Bird-photography in the rainforest is a tough challenge sometimes, but very rewarding when you get even one shot! CLICK an image to enlarge it and better see the bird.

  • Streak-headed Woodcreeper
  • House Wren
  • Pale-billed Woodpecker
  • Black-cheeked Woodpecker
  • Clay-colored Thrush or Yiqüirro — National Bird of Costa Rica

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for more about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Wetland Birds

Or you could call them “water birds” since they eat fish and other water creatures requiring water. 🙂 Because there are so many rainforests and bodies of water all over Costa Rica, most of these birds are fairly common here with the featured image being an exception: The Green Ibis is seen only in a few place, more rare than the White Ibis which was not seen here this year.

I’m still working on my bird photos of 60+ species and will continue to present them here in manageable groupings and then I will introduce a Maquenque 2020 Gallery where you can see all my photos from last week’s visit to my best birding lodge in Costa Rica! While still at Maquenque, I presented these 3 groups of birds on the blog (click titile to see):

  1. Parrots and Toucans (My “Rainforest Fireworks” for 4th of July)
  2. Honeycreepers (a favorite small bird category)
  3. Kingfishers (expert fishers who could be included here)

And today’s I call Wetland Birds: CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
  • Anhinga Male
  • Anhinga Female
  • Northern Jacana
  • Green Ibis
  • Green Heron
  • Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
  • Purple Gallinule
  • Little Blue Heron Juvenile
  • Great Egret

Tomorrow will be 6 Hummingbirds at Maquenque which were hard to photograph in the dark shade of the forest, but always interesting! 🙂

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Coffee Break = 6 Birds!

In the post “On the Road” I mentioned that on our way back from Maquenque we stopped for coffee at Cinchona, and even though in the middle of the day, I photographed 6 species of birds while drinking one cup of coffee (10-15 minutes) AND 2 of them were lifers! That’s new birds for me! The new ones were the Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer and the Prong-billed Barbet. Every time I stop there I hope to get a shot of the Red-headed Barbet and after 3 stops, nada! But this time I got his uglier cousin. 🙂 CLICK to enlarge an image.

  • Prong-billed Barbet
  • Siver-throated Tanager
  • Blue-gray Tanager
  • Black-headed Saltator
  • Emerald Toucanet
  • Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer

See my Costa Rica BIRDS Gallery for many more birds!

And this view of San Fernando Waterfall is a bonus when stopping at Soda Cinchona! 🙂 And you can see all my Costa Rica Waterfalls in my CR Waterfalls Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Kingfishers

There are 4 kinds of Kingfishers here at Maquenque and so far I’ve photographed 3 of those species. I’ve seen Green Kingfisher here before but not this week so far. Here’s the three species I’ve got with two shots of the Amazon because he looks different in each shot. CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Amazon Kingfisher
  • American Pygmy Kingfisher
  • Ringed Kingfisher
  • Amazon Kingfisher

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Honeycreepers

There are 4 species of Honeycreepers in Costa Rica and these three are easily seen all over the Maquenque Lodge & Reserve. Note the big difference in male and female of all three! CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Red-legged Honeycreeper Immature Male
  • Red-legged Honeycreeper Male & Female
  • Red-legged Honeycreeper Female
  • Shining Honeycreeper Male
  • Red-legged Honeycreeper Male
  • Green Honeycreeper Male
  • Green Honeycreeper Female

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Rainforest Fireworks

Instead of traditional 4th of July fireworks I am enjoying the colors of parrots and toucans this weekend. I’ve photographed over 65 species of birds so far, so still way behind on presenting them all and decided to show just the two categories most foreigners consider the most colorful here! Enjoy my tropical fireworks show as a slideshow of 10 photos.

Maquenque Parrots & Toucans

  • Scarlet Macaw
  • Keel-billed Toucan
  • Brown-hooded Parrot
  • Scarlet Macaw
  • Orange-chinned Parakeet
  • Yellow-throated Toucan
  • Mealy Parrot
  • Scarlet Macaw
  • Collared Aracari
  • Orange-chinned Parakeet

Happy 4th of July!

¡PuraVida!

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A BLM Example in Nature

Today was my first “bird day” with what looks like will be around 40 species, but still not through processing nearly 2,000 photos! 🙂 So I will have to show the collection later and it looks like I could beat the 53 species I got here last year!

My interim post will be an interesting little oddity in nature. For whatever reason, the Giant Cowbird (a big blackbird) sometimes lay their eggs in the nest of the Montezuma Oropendola and the really good mother Oropendola hatches the egg and raises the child as her own (do the cowbirds know that?). I had heard about this but never seen it until today. At the rather ugly fruit feeder at the dining room I got this photo of a mother Oropendola feeding a juvenile (bigger than a baby) Giant Cowbird she evidently is raising it as her own child. Since the baby is in the blackbird family I somehow thought of the Black Lives Matter movement in the states and thought this might be considered a beautiful example in nature! Hope so! 🙂

Mother Montezuma Oropendola feeds a “baby” Giant Cowbird she is raising as her own child.

Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.

~Lao Tzu

And for you birders, I know it is a Giant Cowbird juvenile because he has red eyes, not obvious in my photo but in real life it is. No other blackbird has red eyes.

See my Costa Rica BIRDS Gallery for many more birds, though none from this trip are added yet.

¡Pura Vida!