Great Curassow

The other big forest bird (like the guans shown earlier) is the Great Curassow (my gallery link) and the first photo is of two females and a second photo of one male. Note that the male is mostly black like the guans, but has a bright yellow bump on his beak while the male Crested Guan has a red waddle. And interestingly to me is that the Curassows have bigger crests than the Crested Guans with crest in their name. 🙂 The above linked gallery has better photos than these two. I guess I’m getting “rusty” or “slow on the draw” as an action photographer! The birds wait for no one and never pose! 🙂

2 Female Great Curassow, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
1 Male Great Curassow, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Spectacled Caiman

I don’t make reptiles a priority focus in my photography, but in a true rainforest of Costa Rica you will always see either the American Crocodile (my gallery link) which at Maquenque is only on a Rio San Carlos boat trip OR the smaller Spectacled Caiman (my gallery link) which is in the lagoons of the lodge. Snakes are seldom seen in the daylight and I no longer take the night hikes because I risk falling, but that is the best way to see them. This Spectacled Caiman was in a lower lagoon right at the water overflow location, probably hoping for a fish to wash over the dam. 🙂 Just one photo this time.

Spectacled Caiman, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica – Sort of disguised as a log or rock. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

New Frog Species Discovered in Costa Rica

Read about the new species with the scientific name of Isthmohyla nacientes (linked article in Tico Times). It is a mountain tree frog living only above 4,000 feet.

New mountain tree frog discovered in Costa Rica, Isthmohyla nacientes.

For more information: A Facebook Page in Spanish

And Naturalista Costa Rica’s Post also in Spanish.

And a little bit on Wikipedia. All 3 articles can be translated to English by Google.

¡Pura Vida!

In the land of nature!

Banded Tigerwing

Maquenque is just the 4th place I’ve seen this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) and all four locations were on the Caribbean Slope of Costa Rica, with the other 3 right on the coast at Tortuguero, Cahuita and Gandoca-Manzanilla. A beautiful butterfly that seems to always give me opportunity for both top view and side view photos. 🙂 That’s the two views that “identifiers” want. 🙂

Banded Tigerwing, Maquenque Eco Lodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Banded Tigerwing, Maquenque Eco Lodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Maquenque Eco Lodge & Reserve

Rainforest Experience

Yellow-throated Euphonia

Just one of many photos with more available in the gallery: Yellow-throated Euphonia (linked).

Yellow-throated Euphonia, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica. One of the birds from my cabin’s back porch!

¡Pura Vida!

Dragonflies & Damselflies

Here’s a little gallery of 4 of the 5 dragonflies I tried to photograph at Maquenque with the fifth one a pretty bad photo and not used here. Anywhere there is a lot of water there are a lot of different species of dragonflies & damselflies . . .

When I’m not sure of the species name, I use genus or family name as with three of these. Then hope that someone on iNaturalist will make a positive species identification. 🙂

And I have a pretty good collection of Dragonflies & Damselflies in that linked gallery of 50+ species! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Green Basilisk

One of the many common lizards in the rainforests of Costa Rica is the Green Basilisk (English common name) with the Spanish common name my preferred, Emerald Basilisk or of course actually Basilisco Esmeralda. 🙂 I have a lot of better photos in my gallery: Emerald or Green Basilisk (linked). But from this trip, just one shot of the whole lizard and then one “head & shoulder portrait.” 🙂

Green Basilisk, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
Green Basilisk, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Crested Guan

This large bird is one good sign that you are in a truly wild forest. I always see them at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and also at Arenal Observatory Lodge, two of my other favorite places! See my photo collection in the gallery: Crested Guan. (linked) Just the one shot for the blog post today . . .

Crested Guan, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Pura Vida

Tigers in a Meadow of Flowers

Not only is Maquenque up to 70 Treehouse Cabins (THE TREEHOUSE LODGE IN COSTA RICA!), but they continue adding wildness and nature to various corners of their deep forest. One of the additions I discovered this time is a corner of their farm alongside one of the smaller lagoons has been turned into a meadow of flowers! Not only the natural wild flowers, but they have planted more, like Zinnias, Daisies, Cuban Buttercups, Heliconia’s, and more that I haven’t identified. 🙂 And within it I photographed 15+ species of butterflies with the dominant ones being an assortment of “Tigers” or about 4 species of Genus Mechanitis (Tigerwings) and maybe a Tiger Mimic-Queen. I’m having trouble separating and identifying all the tigers! 🙂 Here’s two shots (side view & top view) of what may or may not be the same species in the “Flower Meadow,” followed by a gallery of 4 shots of the flowers in the meadow . . .

Tigerwing Butterfly, Genus Mechanitis, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
Tigerwing Butterfly, Genus Mechanitis, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Tigers in a Meadow of Flowers”

Immature White-collared Manakin

At first I wondered what these pudgy little brown birds were in a tree behind my cabin. Then on eBird’s Merlin I discovered that they are little White-collared Manakins with no white collar yet if male and if female that brown will turn green with a yellowish breast and the females don’t have white collars like the males. See more photos of these juveniles and my photos of mature males in the gallery White-collared Manakin (linked). I’ve seen them twice now at Maquenque and once at Selva Verde Lodge (across the river in their private forest reserve).

Immature White-collared Manakin, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!