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Another migrant from up north I think. The northern version males & females look like this while the “Resident Yellow Warbler” here has a female that is also the same while the resident male has a reddish-brown cap. In my gallery I just keep them all together in the Yellow Warbler Gallery. 🙂 And there I have only one photo of a resident male, seen on Rio Tarcoles.
¡Pura Vida!
Not your every day bird but definitely one of my favorites, the Squirrel Cuckoo, Piaya cayana (my gallery link) is one I’ve seen in multiple locations across Costa Rica, just not frequently. See all those in the above-linked gallery or for my all-time favorite, a portrait of one who posed for me in the Cecropia tree back in 2017: Cuckoo Portrait. A metal print of it hangs in my living room here. 🙂 This one last Sunday was in a tree behind my house only about 40 seconds, so I had to act quick to get these shots before he flew off to a neighbor’s tree and out of sight.
There are 7 species of cuckoos in Costa Rica and I’ve seen and photographed only three, the other two being the Mangrove Cuckoo (in two locations) and the Lesser Ground Cuckoo in one location, (both names are linked to my galleries).
This year I’m not limiting myself to 12 favorite photos of the year like in the past, but doing separate posts over 4 days of (1) Favorite Bird Photos, (2) Favorite Butterfly Photos, (3) Favorite Other Wildlife Photos, and (4) Favorite Plant Life Photos. And you will notice that the big majority of photos were made in Atenas, where I live, because I’m not traveling as much as I used to. The “Atenas” shots were mostly in my garden and Rio Tarcoles runs through Atenas though the river photos were made west of here near the coast. The only other two locations were the two trips made before now at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and Tortuguero NP. (And sorry for this post coming on the same day as the Cuckoo post. I’m getting sloppy in my scheduling!)
“Birds” is the first gallery of “favorites” from this year, found just below this sample photo for the emailed edition of the post:
In the recent days of many creatures eating the ripe palm berries, a Chachalaca or a squirrel broke one of the berry limbs off and it fell to the ground. With many more on the tree, he/she stayed in the tree and the bottom of the pecking order, Clay-colored Thrush, enjoyed the berries off the dropped limb. Plenty for everyone! 🙂 And as I watched this epicurean delight I suddenly realized that these birds have no teeth to chew their food and thus swallow the berry whole! 🙂 I’m enjoying these observations of nature! Simple life in a simple country.
I seem to be seeing more of these this year and I thought this shot last week was particularly nice.
See more of my Tropical Kingbird photos in the gallery: Tropical Kingbird,
¡Pura Vida!
In some ways I’m glad the visits aren’t every day, so I can get excited and enjoy the occasional visits of a neighborhood Lessons Motmot, Momotus lessonii (my gallery link). It lives solely in Central American lowland forests and in Costa Rica more on the Pacific Slope than the Caribbean Slope, though it is seen in the some inland forests on the Caribbean side, while the similar but less-seen Turquoise-browed Motmot (my gallery link) lives only on the Pacific Slope. I have had both in my garden, but many more of the Lesson’s. The species name of “Motmot” comes from an early morning hooting like an owl that the motmots make. 🙂 In both photos he is in a Nance Tree in my garden.
That big bunch of green palm berries in my October 25 post turned red in November and multiple creatures began to eat with the Chachalacas and Boat-billed Flycatchers the most possessive. Below this introductory photo is a gallery showing the “pecking order” for these particular palm berries when I was out to see it. Note that I never saw the iguanas eating them (though they do eat the Nance Berries) but that doesn’t mean they didn’t partake, I just never got a photo. And they would possibly be some competition to the Chachalacas, though those birds stay in families or flocks outnumbering others, as well as being the largest. 🙂
As Christmas nears, it seems nice to see doves in the garden! 🙂 And this is my most regular or most seen dove, the White-winged Dove (my gallery link).
One of our two woodpeckers with the “Woody Woodpecker” hair is the Lineated Woodpecker, Dryocopus lineatus, (my gallery link) “Carpintero Lineado” en español, with the Pale-billed Woodpecker being the other big hairdo woodpecker (his whole head is red!). 🙂 This one sensed that my Cecropia Tree is dying and landed first on the trunk then went straight to a dead limb looking for insects to eat. Because of their “pecking/eating” they tend to stay longer in a tree, making them sometimes easier to photograph than other birds, though the overcast afternoon was poor light that day with a glary white sky. 🙁 Here are two shots from this past Monday. See the gallery for more from all over Costa Rica. He is found only in Central & South America, with North America’s most similar bird being the Pileated Woodpecker (linked to my gallery of one seen on Nashville’s Stones River Greenway).
Is back in Costa Rica from “up north” and no longer called just “Yellow Warbler” as in the past but has a new official name of Northern Yellow Warbler – Setophaga aestiva (linked to my gallery) and what is used by eBird and iNaturalist. Some older books still say just Yellow Warbler and the Princeton Field Guide says American Yellow Warbler. I’m not sure which names are harder to keep up with, Birds or Butterflies! 🙂 They seem to both be changing frequently. This particular bird showed up on December 1 in my Cecropia Tree. Here’s two shots of him/her . . .
