charliedoggett.net
Both my gardens and ones I visit
. . . is sometimes called a “Hummingbird Moth,” though I think it looks more like a “flying shrimp;” 🙂 but whatever, it is an interesting visitor to my garden and this year in June (2025) makes only the 3rd time I’ve seen it. Here’s two photos from this sighting and see my earlier photos in the GALLERY: Titan Sphinx Moth.
The Statira Sulphur, Phoebis statira OR Aphrissa statira (linked to my gallery) may be considered rather plain by some people, but I think the ones like this with clean, simple features are very attractive. While others of this species, that you can see in my gallery, have some brown trim on their wings and a brown spot in the forward wing. I haven’t learned yet if that is a sexual difference (common in many species) or just is in some of this species. Only this one “clean” image in today’s post. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Wellllllll . . . it is a Zebra Longwing or Zebra Heliconian BUTTERFLY! 🙂 (Linked to my gallery.) And this one is the first I’ve seen in my garden and only my third in Costa Rica, with the other two at Xandari Resort Alajuela and El Castillo-Arenal in the Butterfly Conservatory. The scientific name is Heliconius charithonia and it is found throughout South & Central Americas up into the southern half of the U.S. At the time of this writing in June, 490 had been observed & photographed in CR on iNaturalistCR.
This is a new species for me and evidently not seen by many since it is not even listed on BAMONA and I am only the 4th person to report observing one on iNaturalist Costa Rica. And of course I think mine are the best photos! 🙂 The Crassus Swallowtail, Battus crassus is found from Costa Rica south to parts of Venezuela & Ecuador. The most photos are found on iNaturalist Ecuador, with 27 observations, while Panama has 5 and Venezuela 4 like us. See all 10 of my photos of this unique butterfly in my GALLERY: Crassus Swallowtail. Here’s just two of those shots . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Below this email version photo is a gallery of 14 flower photos I made during the last 2 weeks of June. Yeah, I’m catching up on old photo blog posts written earlier. 🙂 Enjoy!
The most frequent woodpecker in my garden is the Hoffman’s Woodpecker, Melanerpes hoffmannii (my gallery link). Red spot on top of head is the male while both male & female have a golden nape. Below this photo for the email version is a gallery of 5 shots recently in my garden.
Or “Tiger-striped Longwing” as the 2 general common names with 6 different sub-species listed on iNaturalist. For this one from my garden I have not identified the sub-species yet, though in my gallery I have photos of the ssp. Clarescens which is endemic to Southwestern Costa Rica (Pacific Coast). See more images in my gallery Ismenius Tiger. Found only in Central American.
¡Pura Vida!
I’m seeing more of these this year, maybe more than the Great Kiskadee, which has always been the dominant flycatcher around my house.
The differences in those two, to help your IDs, is that (1) the Kiskadee is much larger than the Social, which of course would be easier to tell if they were side by side! 🙂 (2) The bill or beak is much larger and longer on the Kiskadee and after seeing a lot of both, that helps with ID and (3) though both have a white ring around their heads with a black center, the Kiskadee also has a bright yellow spot in the center of the black circle which the other flycatchers don’t have. And lastly, (4) though both have a bright yellow belly, this Social’s back is a duller brown while the Kiskadee’s is a brighter red-brown or what birders call “rufous.”
Then this Social Flycatcher can also be confused with the Boat-billed Flycatcher of about the same size (a tad larger maybe), but the big difference there is the larger, boat-shaped bill. But they too have the dull brown back, bright yellow breast and B&W head. Confusing? 🙂
If you would like to compare these three similar flycatcher type birds, you can of course go to eBird or compare my photos of each in my galleries . . .
In my nearly 11 years here I’ve seen the Great Kiskadee the most, all over, with Social Flycatcher the second most seen and the Boat-billed the least seen. But that is not a scientific analysis of the populations! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Or if you prefer, use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-July-1-6-Esquinas-Rainforest-Lodge
I consider these “Trip Galleries” the best of all my photo galleries where I put only the best photos from that experience. Then I link some of these photos to subject galleries such as a bird species gallery, etc. The trip galleries can also be of help if you plan a trip to one of these wonderful places I visit here in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
. . . at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge is surprisingly also one of the largest! (a little larger than toucans.) And maybe size does help with visibility, 🙂 plus the fact that the ones living there are used to people (all nature-lovers) and thus don’t run at the site of a dangerous human! 🙂
The Great Curassow, Crax rubra (eBird link) is a tropical pheasant-like bird found from eastern Mexico throughout Central America to the northwestern edges of Columbia and Ecuador. I see them in most of the protected forests and national parks I visit in Costa Rica. See some of my other photos in the Great Curassow Gallery. Just another of the many nature joys in Costa Rica! 🙂 And yes, they are similar to the Crested Guan (my gallery link) also here and about the same size, but with a bright red waddle. I heard guans on this trip but neither saw nor got photos. Both of these birds remind North Americans of Wild Turkeys, which we do not have here.
And a gallery of 5 shots . . . (click an image to enlarge)
Continue reading “Most visible Bird . . .”