Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This is one of the “resident” herons that do not migrate north during the rainy season. Same with the Black-crowned Night Heron, Boat-billed Heron (I shared a few days ago), Green Heron and other similar herons. While we did not see on our boat tour any Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets or Snowy Egrets because they have all migrated north until around October when they begin returning to avoid the winter up north. See more of my photos of Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Nyctanassa violacea in that gallery.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Yesterday was Independence Day in Costa Rica

And in the past I would have shared photos of the parade in Atenas, but the hot sun and often long time sitting on a little plastic stool or if early enough, a concrete bench is beginning to be too much for me, so no report on yesterday’s patriotic parade in Atenas. Here is Google’s AI summary of what goes on every September 15:

“Yesterday’s Independence Day celebrations in Costa Rica included the traditional “Foles” or lantern parade the night before, followed by patriotic school parades, flag ceremonies, and student performances on the actual holiday, September 15th, emphasizing unity, hope, and freedom. The day honors Costa Rica’s 1821 independence from Spain with national pride and cultural traditions.”

RUNNING OF THE TORCH Tico Times article on that event.

Jaco was the only town with a parade amateur video posted online last night when I did this. Jaco is a beach town west of Atenas and their parade seems more hectic than ours! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Laughing Falcon

One of the several birds we saw on the Jaguar Trail in Tortuguero National Park was the Laughing Falcon, Herpetotheres cachinnans (linked to my gallery) or you can read more about him on ebird. Just 2 shots shared here (more in gallery) . . .

Laughing Falcon, Jaguar Trail, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Blue Jeans Frog (Popular Name)

It is a type of Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Oophaga pumilio (my gallery link) which is very popular with tourists and found in warm moist tropical forests on the Caribbean Slope and Coast of Costa Rica with a few overlapping into Nicaragua and similarly Panama, thus uniquely Costa Rican! 🙂 These two shots were made this past week in Tortuguero National Park, Limón; one on the grounds of Tortuga Lodge and one on the Jaguar Trail in the National Park.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, Tortuga Lodge, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Chestnut-colored Woodpecker male

Photographed on my last morning in Tortuguero (yesterday) and these are probably my favorite bird photos bird photos from this trip. 🙂 Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Celeus castaneus (linked to my gallery. I’ve seen this unusual woodpecker only one other time and that was in the South Caribbean, at Manzanillo. Tortuguero is in the North Caribbean. It is found from Mexico to Panama. And this is my first time to see a woodpecker eating a flower! 🙂

Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Tortuga Lodge, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Banded Tigerwing

One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂

Banded Tigerwing, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Black-crowned Antshrike

All the birds in Tortuguero aren’t water birds, and on the Jaguar Trail in the park, running parallel to the beach, I had a park guide (Manuel) who like guides everywhere in Costa Rica, was more skilled at finding birds than butterflies (my target for that trail) and thus I got several good bird shots along with some butterflies. We were looking at a long line of Soldier Ants when this Antshrike showed up! 🙂 See my gallery with more photos from Cahuita NP and Maquenque Eco Lodge, along with these, all on the Caribbean Slope: Black-crowned Antshrike, Thamnophilus atrinucha. Here’s two shots from yesterday’s hike on the Jaguar Trail in Tortuguero National Park. We also saw a Laughing Falcon and I may share one of those photos tomorrow. 🙂

Black-crowned Antshrike, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Intriguing Boat-billed Herons

They are almost always hiding behind tree limbs, leaves and/or adjacent shrubs along water, meaning that I seldom get a clear shot of their whole body and face. These two shots were my top clearest views yesterday morning as our guide and boat captain stopped by a known nesting place for Boat-billed Herons (one of many reasons to always use a guide). See some more shots from yesterday and photos from earlier years in my Boat-billed Heron, Cochlearius cochlearius GALLERY. This bizarre bird is called Pico Cuchara in Spanish and is found only in tropical Central & South America in mangroves and lowland rivers.

Boat-billed Heron, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
Boat-billed Heron, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

This was one of about a dozen birds I photographed yesterday morning on a morning boat trip in Tortuguero National Park, along with monkeys, caimans, basilisks, butterflies and and cool waterscapes. More photos to be shared later. I’m having a fun and relaxed time in the park with only one project a day. Today I hike the Jaguar Trail in the park looking for butterflies which my research said was the best place in this park. Tomorrow night, if conditions are right, I will get to go on the beach and watch sea turtles lay their eggs. But no photos because flash is not allowed on this park ranger led event.

Pollution on the Way to a Jungle

I love flying on the little planes across Costa Rica which I get to do occasionally and on my way to Tortuguero this time I observed a heavily polluted river and saw where it merged with an otherwise clear and clean river which at the merge became polluted too! And all the junk from either farming or manufacturing is dumped into the already filthy ocean. Our world is in deep trouble ecologically, even in a country that supposedly thinks green like Costa Rica!

The feature photo is of an undisturbed forest compared below with how farming is replacing forests. Then a shot of a “clean section” of Tortuguero Nacional Park that doesn’t show one of the lodges which may be a small pollution, but I’m afraid even that diminishes the wildness of what was once all wild.

A polluted river merges with a clear, clean river, ruining both.
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White-winged Dove

The most commonly seen dove or pigeon in my garden in Atenas is also one of those seen & liked on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. That photo is included below along with today’s photo. It was the first bird I ever photographed in Costa Rica, right after taking a taxi to Hotel Aeropuerto near SJO Airport in Alajuela. As the sun was setting in the hotel garden, I went out just before dinner and this was the first bird I found! 🙂 Our birding tour group had dinner together and the next morning we flew to Puerto Jimenez where I photographed that Tropical Kingbird I shared a couple of days ago. Good memories! 🙂 See more and better photos in my GALLERY: White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica.

At Hotel Aeropuerto, SJO Airport, Alajuela, Costa Rica, 1-31-09, my first night in Costa Rica.
White-winged Dove, photographed a week ago in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Esquinas 2025 GALLERY Completed!

CLICK above image of the gallery 1st page to visit it or use the address below.

Or if you prefer, use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-July-1-6-Esquinas-Rainforest-Lodge

I consider these “Trip Galleries” the best of all my photo galleries where I put only the best photos from that experience. Then I link some of these photos to subject galleries such as a bird species gallery, etc. The trip galleries can also be of help if you plan a trip to one of these wonderful places I visit here in Costa Rica! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!