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Summer Tanager Female

This migrant is appropriately named for Costa Rica since they are always here during our Summer or September to May. The males are uniformly red all over while the females vary from light yellow to a dirty yellow or gold with sometimes brown on the head and wings. Read about the Summer Tanager on eBird or see my Summer Tanager Gallery with photos from other areas of Costa Rica. They breed in North America during the North American Summer then spend Sept-May south from Mexico to northern South America, our summer! 🙂 Thus the name fits both regions during the times there.

Summer Tanager female, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Nest Surviving Strong Winds

We’ve had strong winds today meaning the Dove nest I introduced the other day is being tested. She has not left the nest for at least 2 days now, implying that she has laid her egg(s). In the wide photo you can tell that the nest, circled in red, is in a palm frond that is partly held secure by the fork of the Cecropia Tree (did the Doves figure that out?) and behind that frond is a row of bamboo palms blocking some of the wind. So the nest might make it, especially if she doesn’t leave it or leave it much when the wind is blowing. I don’t know if the male will bring her food; I haven’t seen him around. I will be pleasantly surprised if this nest continues to survive and we see baby doves! 🙂 Remember that earlier an Inca Dove nest did not survive a palm frond location, but it was more in the open with no shelter or support like this Cecropia Tree fork of limbs. Time will tell.

Nest (circled in red) is on a Palm braced by Cecropia limbs and shielded by ornamental palms. It may survive the winds!
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Overachiever Flower?

This one Red Ginger plant has created 6 blooms all together at the top. Not normal! Especially that bulging over-sized bloom! But an interesting phenomenon! 🙂

Red Ginger with multiple blooms on one plant, Atenas, Costa Rica.

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¡Pura Vida!

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On the Nest

The nest that was being built yesterday now has the mother sitting on the nest and I don’t know if there are eggs there yet, but she never left it the whole time I was out there watching at breakfast and afterwards. Thus I assume that it is the male still bringing sticks/twigs to the nest in the third photo below. I think it is unfortunate that she chose to build the nest inside the palm frond with the possibilities of high winds through February, but nothing I can do about it. In an earlier year an Inca Dove built a nest in a smaller tree’s palm frond and she lost her eggs, but this one is more protected, so maybe safe. See the linked blog post at bottom, “Mother Dove Abandons Nest in Wind.” You can see it all in nature!

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Nest-building Dove

White-winged Dove, Atenas, Costa Rica

The books say that the male chooses the neighborhood and the female chooses the tree and does most of the building with sticks, so I’m guessing this is the female (they look alike). This one is building in the crotch of a small ornamental palm tree which I hope will be secure during the Jan-Feb winds. Below are 4 photos of this most common and widespread dove in Costa Rica, found from the southern half of the states down through Panama. This one is building a nest in my garden in Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

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I Moved Christmas to the Garden

Before I left on my Christmas trip to Uvita, I planted this year’s Poinsettia in my garden to possibly give it a longer life outdoors! As a specially created with light/darkness houseplant it will not continue to grow in the garden but is a nice temporary addition of color! Just one more joy of living in the tropics! 🙂

My Flora & Forest Galleries

¡Pura Vida!