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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! 🙂
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. 🙂
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.
¡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.
. . . is on the powerline overlooking the meadow where he feeds on the grasses. I’m seeing more of him this year. For more photos, go to my gallery: Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus.
This colorful bird is not always around but seen more this year than usual and the other day in my big Strangler Fig or Ficus Tree, called a Higuerón in Spanish. See more of my photos in the gallery: Lesson’s Motmot, Momotus lessonii. Interestingly to me is that since February 2022 (when a counter was added) I’ve had more than a thousand visitors to that gallery. 🙂 Just this one photo here . . .
¡Pura Vida!
This “hummer” is still the dominant or most seen hummingbird in my garden. But with still fewer flowers than normal this year, all of my hummingbird are also looking elsewhere for flowers, because I just do not fill the feeders regularly. Here are a couple of recent shots in my garden. For more photos go to my GALLERY: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl.
The national bird of Costa Rica, believed to “sing in the rain” in April and May, beginning the Rainy Season. An ever present bird you can find in most of Costa Rica is one that I never tire of photographing. Just one shot from my garden a week or so ago.
See my gallery of Clay-colored Thrush for many more photos! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of the birds that is almost always somewhere around the garden! See more of my photos in the Gallery: Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus. Just one photo today . . .
¡Pura Vida!
And that is my first impression of these male & female Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers, Melanerpes hoffmannii (my gallery link). But these days everybody looks young to me! 🙂
Sometimes one of my photo books “just happens” and not as originally planned! 🙂 I now give a gift book to each of my favorite lodges each time I visit and no longer do custom books for the lodges, so I needed a new gift book (which other visitors to that lodge will enjoy). Plus I sometimes give one of my doctors or other persons serving me a gift book and was needing a newer and fresher book.
I started out with the idea of just 8-10 photos in each of 3 categories: birds, butterflies and landscapes and would call it “Birds, Butterflies & the Bucolic.” (I like aliterations!) But I started curating photos of birds first. After the Hummingbirds I started choosing from the many water birds (seashore and freshwater) and collected so many I liked that I suddenly changed my mind and said it would be a “water birds book.” And even that turned out to be more photos and pages than intended, but I am pleased with this latest creation! 🙂
As always, you can see it without buying. Simply click on the cover image below or the web address that follows. In the bookstore page (link) under the cover photo is a PREVIEW button. Click that and you can see the entire book electronically for free! Click a page to turn it. 🙂 And I hope you enjoy my latest effort to be creative! 🙂 And if you like electronic books, there’s a cheaper PDF version you can download immediately.
CLICK above book cover or go to this address for a free PREVIEW: https://www.blurb.com/b/12521048-wind-spirits
¡Pura Vida!