This pretty little bird was photographed from the back porch of my cabin and when I put three shots from this sighting in my gallery Yellow Tyrannulet (linked), I found that the only two shots already in that gallery were made in the same tree two years earlier from the back porch of that same cabin of a more mature bird. 🙂 So Maquenque is the only place I’ve ever seen it.
Yellow Tyrannulet, Maquenque Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
I finally processed all the bird photos from my 2026 Maquenque Trip linked at: BIRDS (43 species alphabetically) with one “Lifer” (1st time seen), the Yellow-olive Flatbill.
That familiar idiom was seen literally during the several rains of my visit to Maquenque Lodge in early July, shown here in photos of a Muscovy Duck in the rain (link to my gallery). But I guess I could also use the phrase as the idiom it is known for when I read about the idiotic president and Republican politicians of the United States while living a more relaxed life in the nature and beauty of a tropical paradise country with no army, no wars, no enemies and no national hatred or fears . Pura vida! Trump affects me like water off a duck’s back! 🙂 (Though I do sometimes mourn for what is happening to my country of birth and shake my head in disbelief.)
Muscovy Duck, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Trip BIRDS Gallery Finished
I finally processed all the bird photos from my 2026 Maquenque Trip linked at:
And yes, on previous trips I had 61 and 62 species, but I’m an old man now plus it rained every day this trip, so considering that, 43 was not a bad number. 🙂
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. 🙂
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.
Green Ibis, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, San Carlos, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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 , , ,
Contorted Green Heron fishing at Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Another bird nearly as big as the Crested Guan and Curassow at Maquenque is the Gray-headed Chachalaca (my gallery link) and this chattering big bird is also common at my house while the other two are not. These three shots are representative of the many different looks that Chachalacas seem to have. I particularly like the second photo below of a very wet Chachalaca in a rain. 🙂 And note that both male and female have the red dewlap on their neck during mating season (unlike Crested Guans which is only the males.) In fact, male & female Chachalacas are almost identical, though males tend to be a little larger.
This is another one of the fine birds that I photographed from my back porch at Maquenque in two different sightings. I’ve seen this bird in only 2 other lodges but these were my best shots ever while just sitting on the back porch. 🙂 See more photos from these sightings plus those from the other two lodges in my gallery: Cocoa Woodcreeper (linked).
Cocoa Woodcreeper, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
Mauro Protti, the producer and videographer of a 30 minute weekly TV show for a Costa Rica TV station and it’s own YouTube channel lives across the street from me right now. And the episode that was on local TV yesterday titled: “Wake Up TV Atenas, Costa Rica”includes about 10+ minutes of an interview he did of me Monday on my terrace in English with both Spanish and English subtitles that have a lot of computer misspelled words from a funny-talking old man, but the footage he made of Atenas shown after my interview is really good with shots of Central Park, parades, the central church, etc.
The first 5 minutes are a presentation about The Retreat, a very upscale resort in Atenas, then the interview of me, the videos of many activities and parts of Atenas followed by a video of the more affordable Hotel Colinas del Sol just three blocks from my house and they are the ones that suggested he interview me when he filmed there. 🙂 Finally an interview of someone here who plays music to plants that I did not understand, but you might find interesting. Of course everything is in Spanish except me. And what I say is answering his questions. He kind of focused on Butterflies because of my two new books of butterfly photos that he has a few quick camera scans of. I think I sound kind of strange, but it is what it is. Many people here are amazed that I spend my time photographing nature rather than watching TV or sitting in my rocking chair, so maybe I’m an oddity they are showing to locals. 🙂 Pura vida for me! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Charlie Doggett being interviewed by Mauro Protti for TV video. This is a still from the video and I evidently just said “was for” which is translation of “fue para.” 🙂
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 Rica1 Male Great Curassow, Maquenque Lodge, Costa Rica
