Another common water bird on most all rivers in Costa Rica is this Bare-throated Tiger-Heron – Tigrisoma meicanum (my gallery link). Fairly common on both slopes from Mexico to Columbia.
¡Pura Vida!
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Female Anhingas
We saw only females. The males are solid black and usually seen on the river. See my photo gallery: Anhinga – Anhinga anhinga. Every river and lake in Costa Rica has Anhinga’s on both slopes. Often called “Snake Bird” because after they dive into the water to catch a fish, they swim back to shore with only the long neck above water, appearing as a swimming snake. 🙂
Peruvian Shield Mantis
The Peruvian Shield Mantis – Choeradodis rhombicollis (Wikipedia link) is found mostly in Central & South American tropics. I photographed this one last week at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort. And yes, he is related to the Praying Mantis, also found here. In my gallery I have him with other Hooded Mantises, Genus Choeradodis. But both iNaturalist & Google Lens were specific with a species name on this one. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Rare Reddish Egret
The Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens (my gallery link) is seldom seen and usually in the mouth of a river as it was here in the mouth of Rio Tarcoles. Though I did see one upriver at Rancho Humo, Palo Verde NP, Rio Tempisque, a pale morph. This time it is a dark morph. It is rare and mainly seen on the Pacific Coast when seen. Only my second sighting and a different morph this time.
Amazon Kingfisher
Eating a tiny fish on Rio Tarcoles last week. See more of my photos of this species in the gallery: Amazon Kingfisher (linked).
The other Kingfisher we saw was a Green Kingfisher which I will share later as one of the many birds seen on the Tarcoles!
¡Pura Vida!
A “Stink Bug” at Carara Park
I haven’t found a species match yet, but sure that it is in this super family: Stink Bugs, Shield Bugs, and Allies Superfamily Pentatomoidea (linked to an iNaturalist page on this family).
¡Pura Vida!
And for more bugs, my gallery: More Costa Rica Insects which is separate from my Butterfly & dragonfly galleries. 🙂
Masked Tree Frog
Hiding in a piece of vegetation in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve two days ago. See more from several other locations in my gallery Masked Tree Frog, Similisca phaeota.
¡Pura Vida!
Collared Trogons
Here’s one shot each of a male & female Collared Trogon, Trogon collaris (my gallery link). They were the first two birds we saw in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve or Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort yesterday. Just waiting on us as we arrived! 🙂 This particular trogon is found only in Central America and the northern portions of South America. And as you can tell from my collection of photos (above linked gallery), is found only in the higher elevations like where we were yesterday, inside a cloud. 🙂
Yellow-headed Caracara
On all my past trips I’ve seen and photographed this Yellow-headed Caracara -Daptrius chimachima (my gallery link) but always in the past he was on a log, tree limb or the ground and once flying low near the ground. But this one of him flying high with that great wingspan showing is new for me. Not a good photo of a moving bird, 100 meter up, shot from a moving boat, but I at least I sort of captured that wide & colorful wingspan. Just one of many, many birds you can see on Rio Tarcoles! 🙂
And today is the day we leave early (5am) for a 6:30 birding hike at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel, north of San Ramon. Not as many birds but they will all be different than seen at Tarcoles and Carara Park and followed by a really good “Farm to Table” Breakfast and a visit to their gardens. I was there in 2017, my only time before today. On top of a mountain! This particular cloud forest reserve was the specific request of one of my Canadian birding friends. Walter is our transportation. And photos from there will be shared along with the Tuesday trip photos over the next few weeks. Every day is an adventure in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Helmeted Iguana
One of the coolest things we saw at Carara National Park yesterday was a Perro Zompopo · Helmeted Iguana – Corytophanes cristatus also known as the Smooth Helmeted Iguana, Helmeted Basilisk, Helmeted Lizard and a few other common names. With that Perro Zompopo being the official Spanish common name on iNaturalist and of course that 3rd Latin name is the scientific name. He was in a lot of shade behind trees, limbs and vines in the thick transitional forest of Carara, thus difficult to photograph. The above shot with a greenish hue was on my Canon Camera while my cell phone shot through the spotting scope had a duller, brownish hue. 🙂 And my identification has not yet been approved by a specialist on iNaturalist, but I’m sort of confident of this.
We got scads of bird photos on Rio Tarcoles but it may take awhile to work through all of them, while the complicated online way of now entering national parks meant we didn’t get on trail to after 11 which is too late for birds, but our excellent guide, Andrys, found lots of other nature to experience and photograph. Both experiences were really good, though too much for one day for our age group. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!