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One of my interesting garden lizards is this Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura similis (my gallery link) who lives only on the Pacific slope of the continental divide. One week from today I will be in Tortuguero on the Caribbean Slope where I will definitely see some of the Green Iguanas, similar but different. Watch for those photos next week. 🙂
The national bird of Costa Rica, believed to “sing in the rain” in April and May, beginning the Rainy Season. An ever present bird you can find in most of Costa Rica is one that I never tire of photographing. Just one shot from my garden a week or so ago.
See my gallery of Clay-colored Thrush for many more photos! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This Gray Cracker, Hamadryas februa (my gallery link) is one of 5 different species of Crackers I have photographed in Costa Rica, every single one on a tree trunk, and they can all be seen in my Brushfoot Galleries. This one landed on my Cecropia Tree the other day for just a few seconds before flying off, with me getting only two shots at an angle. And yes, I know that he is not literally “gray,” but the previous one photographed that was even more of a tan color. He is identified by specific spots and not the overall color. Just one shot . . .
¡Pura Vida!
And that is my first impression of these male & female Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers, Melanerpes hoffmannii (my gallery link). But these days everybody looks young to me! 🙂
The Plain-capped Starthroat is new to me, thus a lifer or first time seen bird.
The most commonly seen dove or pigeon in my garden in Atenas is also one of those seen & liked on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. That photo is included below along with today’s photo. It was the first bird I ever photographed in Costa Rica, right after taking a taxi to Hotel Aeropuerto near SJO Airport in Alajuela. As the sun was setting in the hotel garden, I went out just before dinner and this was the first bird I found! 🙂 Our birding tour group had dinner together and the next morning we flew to Puerto Jimenez where I photographed that Tropical Kingbird I shared a couple of days ago. Good memories! 🙂 See more and better photos in my GALLERY: White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica.
¡Pura Vida!
. . . is one of the many birds I loved discovering on that first trip to Costa Rica in 2009 and still smile every time I see one! This one sort of looks like a little guard watching over my garden! 🙂 See more of my photos of this charming CR bird in my GALLERY: Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus. Including that first one at Lookout Inn, Carate, Corcovado National Park and another one on that same trip in Puerto Jimenez. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Continue reading “Tropical Kingbird . . .”
. . . is the Rufous-backed Wren, Campylorhynchus capistratus (my gallery link) with youngsters recently born and all chattering around everywhere it seems. Their chattering makes me think that they are miniature Chachalacas! 🙂 Two shots, one from above & one from below . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Continue reading “Most Common Bird This Week . . .”
This is one of the lesser seen species of the 6 Motmot species in Costa Rica, found here only on the northwest coast, north of Manuel Antonio. I have photographed most in my neighborhood with two in Puntarenas Province at Jaco & Tambor Bay, plus one in Guanacaste at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincon de la Vieja. See my other photos in the Turquoise-browed Motmot Gallery. Or read about them on eBird. Found from Southern Mexico to Northwestern Costa Rica only.
¡Pura Vida!
Doing well, just a little low energy and sleeping 8-10 hours at night. 🙂 But the continued oral antibiotics are working, I’m sure, and soon I will be back to a “normal” old man! 🙂 Catching a few photos in garden now and have a backlog from July, so the blog will continue! 🙂
This little bird feeds in the grasses usually, though I caught him yesterday afternoon in my neighbor’s dead tree. He is the Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus (eBird link) which I have seen multiple times in my neighborhood along with a sighting at Curi-Cancha Reserve in Monteverde and at Rio Celeste Lodge near Tenorio NP. My other photos are in my gallery titled: Yellow-faced Grassquit.
¡Pura Vida!
Continue reading “Yellow-faced Grassquit”