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I usually see this species out in the cow pasture grass, but here he is in one of my Nance Trees! See more of this seedeater species in my gallery: Yellow-faced Grassquit – Tiaris olivaceus. Just one shot from this sighting in the middle of March . . .
¡Pura Vida!
One of those semi-rare birds that I don’t see very often at home or on trips, though the most common of 8 different cuckoos in Costa Rica . This one was hiding in the shadows of a Nance Tree earlier in March, never showing the front of his/her bright B&W tail, thus no great photos like with the one that posed for me back in 2017. 🙂 But in nature photography you take what you get and try to make the best of it! 🙂 See my collection of Squirrel Cuckoos, the gallery! Just 3 shots here . . .
I’m rather late with my monthly flowers report, but that is because of all the photos from the 3 day trips with my Canadian friends. Below this one email photo is a gallery of a dozen shots. Click one to see it larger. Enjoy my tropical paradise!
One of many shots of the Atenas hills at or near sunrise found in my gallery: From My Roca Verde Terrace (gallery linked) . . .
¡Pura Vida!
The last of the three day trips that I participated in with my Canadian Friends was to the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve better known here for its Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel where we had breakfast after a couple of hours of birding. And the clouds never lifted or burned off the entire time we were there. Click the first page of that gallery below to access it or if you prefer an address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Birding-at-Villa-Blanca-Cloud-Forest-Reserve
¡Pura Vida!
Because we went after the Rio Tarcoles trip, it was too late in day for many birds, I got only 2 species, but I did get 10 species of other wildlife including some interesting species like the Helmeted Iguana, stick moth caterpillar, etc. and one of my dark monkey shots is visible. Click the first page of gallery below to enter or if you prefer an address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Hiking-Carara-NP
I earlier did a post on the Helmeted Iguana and one on the Stink Bug, two of the 10 “Other Wildlife” seen at Carara this time. See gallery.
And tomorrow I will hopefully have completed the gallery for our morning visit to Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve and Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel.
¡Pura Vida!
Simply click on the gallery image below to go there or you can go to this address:
https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Rio-Tarcoles-Birding-Boat-Tour
And if you don’t go to the gallery, here’s one of the pix of our little birding group from Canada & me. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And I never said earlier, but we shared our boat with a larger group from France and a tri-lingual Tica Guide, who shared in French, English & Spanish! 🙂 I love the international nature of Costa Rica!
Plus there will be two more much smaller galleries from our group’s hike through Carara National Park after Tarcoles and another morning birding at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Reserve.
Like the Reddish Egret, this one can be confused with others, including each other and the Little Blue Heron, but Merlin confirmed this ID for the two very different photos below, dark & light. See my other photos of this species and the variety of looks in my gallery: Tricolored Heron – Egretta tricolor.
¡Pura Vida!
They are captivating birds at any age, as you can see in my gallery: Yellow-crowned Night Heron. This youngster was on the Tarcoles River.
¡Pura Vida!
Another species seen on Rio Tarcoles that I don’t see regularly across Costa Rica is the Streaked Flycatcher (my gallery link) and it is very similar to the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, which I thought the second of these two photos was (as did Merlin), but after more research, I decided that they are both Streaked and learned that many Streaked have some yellow on their belly. My final decision of putting both photos in Streaked was based also on other markings besides the yellow coloration. And, as always, I may be wrong! 🙂 If so, then this is two species and my total on the river was 41! 🙂
They were together in the same group of trees near the boat dock which is another reason I put them in the same species, but it is not unheard of for two species to hunt together and they would be related, like maybe cousins? 🙂 But also, I found many examples online of Streaked with more yellow like this second photo. You decide. And both eBird & iNaturalist have “checkers” and “identifiers” who also may correct my IDs when submitted to each. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!