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One website calls this “Blurry-Striped Longtail,” but I think I prefer White-striped Longtail, Chioides catillus (my gallery link). Just this one shot here plus the feature photo at top. Go to that gallery for more shots in my garden the other day while still windy + more from last year.
¡Pura Vida!
And for you butterfly aficionados, yes, he is a lot like the Durantes Longtail, but without that white stripe! Plus he has a longer tail than any of the other Longtails, I think.
. . . for the rains to begin. And hopefully that will be any day now! (And maybe before this is posted, since I’m scheduling posts about a week ahead now.) 🙂 The National Bird of Costa Rica, known in English as the Clay-colored Thrush, is I think a handsome bird, even when not singing all day like he does every April. Here are three recent shots of different individuals and you can see more in my Gallery: Clay-colored Thrush, Turdus grayi. 🙂
The Florida (Giant) White, Glutophrissa drusilla (my gallery link) (formerly Appias drusilla and without the “Giant” in common name) can be found all over Costa Rica even though it’s name implies that it is a butterfly for the state of Florida. 🙂
See more butterfly photos + an update on migrants being sent to Costa Rica by Dictator Trump . . .
Continue reading “Florida White”
More different butterflies are beginning to show up like this Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) on my driveway the other day while watering the garden (why blacktop is wet). And it was still windy then, but I guess if the caterpillar turns to a butterfly, he has to eat! Windy or not! 🙂
And oh yeah, he is called a “Blue” because the top of his wings are solid blue, but you only see that when he is flying. He seems to never land with his wings open. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Another competitor for my little Rufous-tailed Hummingbird who thinks he owns my garden is this Blue-vented Hummingbird, Saucerottia hoffmanni (my gallery link) and I haven’t seen him try to stop this larger deep-blue tailed hummingbird who has also been around my gardens since my first year here. You can read about him on eBird. A tropical bird found only in Costa Rica & Nicaragua with maybe a few strays into Honduras & El Salvador. 🙂 Or see more than 400 observations in Costa Rica on iNaturalist CR.
Here’s two shots recently on my Porterweed flowers. And yes, it is still windy, but these hummers have to eat every few minutes, regardless of the weather! And we all hope for the rains to start any day now and maybe then the winds will disappear! 🙂
Only my second time to see this species with the other documented with just a cell phone on 8th Avenue in Boquerón Barrio, not far from my house. Thankfully, these photos, made with my Canon camera in my garden, will improve the quality of the photos in my GALLERY: Banded Orange Heliconian, Dryadula phaetusa. 🙂 This is mostly a Central American Butterfly with rare strays in Mexico & SW U.S. as shown on the few Butterflies & Moths postings, but more than 200 observations on iNaturalist CR. 🙂
Or it seems that I will do anything for one! 🙂 That is why I like going to the nature lodges where you can get closer to such colorful birds. Well, here are my step by step procedures for one of those many that come near my house (plus waiting for a blue sky!) 🙂 . . .
Continue reading “Anything for a Parrot Pix!”
He’s back! (And while the wind is still blowing!) As one of the most common tiny butterflies in my garden each year, maybe he is signaling the beginning of “butterfly season?” 🙂 The Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) is only a little bigger than my thumbnail and yet is one of the most intricately-designed of all the butterflies. I even used a photo of one on my 2023 Christmas Card! 🙂
This one is the first of that species in my garden this year, but I expect there to be many more! 🙂 And a funny thing to me is that all my many photos of this species have come from my garden, not even one from another location in Costa Rica! But iNaturalist CR shows them all over, on both slopes, but with more in the hills and on the Pacific Slope for whatever reason.
¡Pura Vida!
I never claim to be an authority on anything in nature, but my deductions of this photo on K’s fence the other day lead me to believe that it is a Juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. The three Saltators are the only birds this size with a “seedeater bill” (short/stubby fat) that also have the white eyebrow and little white line under the eye. Thus my deduction that it is a Saltator and because just 8 days ago I shared a photo of an adult Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (most common saltator here), I believe this one may be the offspring of that adult.
The Merlin AI identifier (eBird) is very good, but not on juveniles like this, and it just said it was “unable to identify” and the iNaturalist AI (also very good) said “not confident to identify” but then went on to give it’s first choice of “possible” species as a double-collared seedeater (Sporophila caerulescens) and that was also the first choice of Google Lens, but that species is South American and never sighted in Costa Rica, plus it does not have a white eyebrow and in my opinion not a good option! 🙂
I did find some juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltators online similar to this, and yes, many are darker or grayer than this one, but a few similar. Whew! Identification can be a lot of work! 🙂 So here it is, whatever it is . . .
See all of my photos of this species in Cinnamon-bellied Saltator Gallery which, by the way, was formerly called the “Grayish Saltator.”
¡Pura Vida!
The Split-banded Owl-Butterfly – Opsiphanes cassina fabricii is a first-time seen butterfly for me and I found him dead on the floor of my bedroom one evening recently. And like with many new ones, it took awhile to identify the species, but I’m going to give credit to iNaturalist Costa Rica for their AI providing the final clue to nail down this identification with a certain amount of confidence that it is correct and the other photos submitted on both iNaturalistCR and on Butterflies&Moths seem to further confirm it. Though even here there is still always a little doubt with some organizations using sub-species, etc. and as an example with this, Butterflies of America uses Opsiphanes cassina fabricii (fabricii as a sub-species), while Butterflies&Moths uses just Opsiphanes cassina (as the overall species) and iNaturalist has the two separated as 2 different species. So I may never be 100% certain! 🙂 But it is still fun and I feel like I am contributing a little toward saving what is left of this planet. And we need everybody’s help for that to happen!
¡Pura Vida!
If you don’t want to just go there and start using it, try their website HELP PAGE with 5 Getting Started basic questions answered, then go to iNaturalist.org and start both using their IDs & sharing your photos! 🙂 I have it on my phone just for help in identifications and on my laptop computer from where I download my observations. Some younger people use their phone for everything, but that screen is too small for this old man! 🙂 And yeah! I still use a computer mouse and mouse pad too! 🙂
Similarly you can also share your bird photos on eBird and your butterfly & moth photos on BAMONA, butterfliesandmoths.org.
All of these are enormous contributions to scientific research and the conservation of our planet’s animals & plants. Your few observations and contributions added to those of thousands of other people WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Plus you will discover the identification of many things you’ve always wanted to know the name of! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!