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First Cracker I’ve seen in Atenas outside my garden, this one on a telephone pole between my house and the RV front gate. That metal strap on the power line pole takes away from the naturalness of the butterfly, but it is otherwise a good, clear photo by my cheap android telephone. 🙂 See more of this species in my gallery Variable Cracker. All of the others are on my Cecropia Tree.
¡Pura Vida!
One of my frequently seen Sulphur is this Dark Apricot Sulphur, Phoebis argante (my gallery link). Note that the top of wings are a solid bright yellow while the bottom of wings (or side view) is a darker yellow with lots of brown spots.
Wow! Not easy and not quick! I always have a lot of photos to process from Maquenque Lodge and here are the ones that I chose to keep in the appropriate sub-galleries. Click the image of gallery below to go there or use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-07-2-7-Maquenque-Lodge-Boca-Tapada
¡Pura Vida!
Maybe the Satyr species I see most here, the Hermes Satyr (my gallery link) was of course seen at Maquenque . . .
¡Pura Vida!
This time at Maquenque I saw only one hawk and it is one of the more common in Costa Rica, the Roadside Hawk (my gallery link).
¡Pura Vida!
These are my first turtles to be labeled Nicaraguan, but that is what iNaturalist’s AI said for every one of these photos (less the nose shot) and we’ll see if the experts agree after I post them there. It is very similar to the Central American Slider and thus could be either. But Maquenque is almost on the Nicaragua border, plus this species is supposedly all over Costa Rica.
This striking bird is seen occasionally in my garden, but Maquenque Ecolodge is still my #1 place to see and photograph the Groove-billed Ani (my gallery link) and in more interesting situations including a photo of a family of 8 Groove-billed Anis lined up together on a fence! 🙂
And yes, there is a Smooth-billed Ani (my gallery link) that books say is seen only along the South Pacific Coast where the Groove-billed is not usually seen but I have a shot from the South Caribbean from where others have posted photos on iNaturalist, plus iNat shows some reported in the Northern Central Valley hills. They are still more rare than the Groove-billed which is literally seen all over Costa Rica up to 1,500 feet altitude. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Maquenque ranks up there with Tortuguero on seeing and photographing the Green Ibis, though this time I was not able to get a close as before plus the cloudy/rainy weather made them look darker or nearly black, but they are always dark as you can see in my gallery: Green Ibis (linked). Just 2 shots here with more in the gallery. And though they all have a green tint, it is difficult to get that green to show up in a photo.
¡Pura Vida!
Where there’s water there’s Green Herons and I have a lot of photos from all over Costa Rica of this interesting bird in my gallery: Green Heron. And as in this wet look photo below, they can have many different looks, particularly when fishing from a limb , , ,
¡Pura Vida!
The Julia Heliconian (my gallery link) was also prevalent at Maquenque as in my garden, another favorite butterfly. Here’s the distinctive side view and top view . . .
¡Pura Vida!