3 Lifers on the First Day!

In just a day and a half I’ve photographed 44 species of birds which continues Maquenque as my best birding place in Costa Rica! And to top it off, thanks to a very good birding guide this morning, I got photos of three lifers! That’s 3 birds seen for the first time in my life! Here’s photos of the three lifers and I may not get all of the others in the blog but will of course have them in my trip gallery!  🙂 The weirdest one first . . .

Olivaceous Piculet (a tiny woodpecker), Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Common Pauraque, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica

These three photos will be the start of three new bird galleries in my Costa Rica Birds Galleries, which is a good place to get acquainted with birds you can see in Costa Rica, whether you live here or you are coming for a visit. Check it out! And I’ve included where I photographed each bird plus three names: English, Spanish and the Latin Scientific Name!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Yellow-faced Grassquit

This common resident bird is found literally all over Costa Rica at most levels and this is my 4th time to see one in my Atenas neighborhood, with all other photos here in trees, bushes or on a fence, though their feeding is in the grasses! I have seen one across the street in the cow pasture grasses but without a photo!  🙂  I did get photos of him in the grasses of a meadow in Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverde and I’ve also seen one at Celeste Mountain Lodge at Tenorio Volcano NP. See my other photos in the Yellow-faced Grassquit GALLERY. And you can read about them on eBird. He’s a resident, tropical, non-migrating bird found throughout Central America, the Caribbean Islands and the northern fringes of South America. Here’s 3 shots of this male in one of my Nance Trees . . .

Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Continue reading “Yellow-faced Grassquit”

The Concert Master

The most frequently heard song in my garden in April is always the melodic song of the Clay-colored Thrush, called Yigüirro in Costa Rican Spanish. Local tradition is that he is singing in the rainy season, begging God for rain and thus he usually goes near the top of trees to sing and why my photos seldom show him singing. It sounds like he is trying really hard to do a good job and loud! As locals say, “singing his heart out!” You can hear one recording on eBird, click the “Listen” Button.

But they do come down to the lower limbs occasionally for my photos,  🙂  with these two shots from two different days. Usually we have a light start of rain the middle of April scattered over several days with the “real” rain beginning in earnest in May when we can have a shower or more every afternoon through November.

This year we had the unusual experience of 4 days of showers in March! Climate change! I live in the “Central Valley” which would not be considered a “rainforest” like both coasts and their corresponding “slopes” where it rains year around and occasionally all day. I like visiting the rainforests but the Central Valley is better for daily living.  🙂

Clay-colored Thrush, Yigüirro, Atenas, Costa Rica

Continue reading “The Concert Master”

My Solo Hummingbird

This one Rufous-tailed Hummingbird appears to be the only one living in my gardens right now and occasionally he almost poses for a photo. I have not been putting out the Hummingbird feeder for a long time now because these Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds are very territorial and he chases any others off. But after next week’s trip I will have nearly 3 months of no travel and may try the feeder again, not to necessarily feed this guy but hope it attracts other hummingbirds. We will see!  🙂

Right now they depend on flowers alone for food! I guess that is more natural!   🙂  But in the past I had a lot more than this!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And more in my Rufous-tailed Hummingbird GALLERY.

Small Endemic Bird – Spot-crowned Euphonia

This small bright blue & yellow bird landed for 30 seconds or so in my Yellow Bell Tree Wednesday and I managed to get a few shots before he left. He is the male Spot-crowned Euphonia  (eBird link), endemic to Costa Rica and the northern fringes of Panama, only on the Pacific Slopes, and just my third time to photograph one! First time in my garden!  🙂  My other places were at Esquinas Rainforest lodge at Piedras Blancas NP north of Golfito and at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja NP in Guanacaste near Liberia. I go back to Esquinas in July for my 83rd birthday and expect to see them again! 🙂

One of my all-time favorite bird photos was of a female Spot-crowned Euphonia eating a berry at Esquinas Lodge! See that and the other shots in my Spot-Crowned Euphonia Gallery! Now here’s 3 shots from my garden Wednesday . . .

Spot-crowned Euphonia, male, Atenas, Costa Rica

Above he’s looking down, next looking up and the third looking right into the camera before flying off!  🙂

Continue reading “Small Endemic Bird – Spot-crowned Euphonia”

Great Crested Flycatcher

He landed in one of my Nance trees for only a few seconds and then flew away, never showing his face, which can help with ID! 🙂 But after a lot of research online and in my books I am pretty certain that this fellow is a Great Crested Flycatcher which we can have here as both immigrants from the north this time of year or non-breeding residents year-a-round. But this is my first time to see one here, though I saw one in the states in the past.

Great Crested Flycatcher, Atenas, Costa Rica

For the birders reading, notice the distinctive white wing-bars and the slight reddish-orange tinting on the lower edge of his wing. Only Great Crested, Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers have both of those, eliminating the similar Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. Plus none of those have this bright a yellow belly or this dark of a brown crest which is also the two reasons I eliminate the  Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers!

Sometimes bird ID becomes like scientific detective work!  🙂  But I’m pretty confident of this ID, even without a face shot which would have shown no eye ring and a slight bit of pink at the base of his bill.  Read about him on eBird. And you who live in the Eastern U.S. are possibly familiar with him as a common bird there, as shown on eBird’s map, and where I’ve seen him before.

¡Pura Vida!

Bird Galleries Like None Other

My Costa Rica Bird Galleries by Species have many helpful characteristics for birders or anyone interested in Costa Rica birds that no other online gallery has nor does any book other than maybe Aves de Costa Rica by Garrigues & Dean and it, like its English version is out of date with many incorrect bird names.

One example of 360 galleries. Note English, Spanish & Scientific Names!

My bird galleries have:

  • Photos of 360+ species of birds in Costa Rica arranged by taxonomy families as in the Princeton Field Guide: Birds of Central America, the most up-to-date birding book for Costa Rica at this time.
  • Up-to-date official English Names (constantly changing) based on the latest from eBird
  • Spanish Names as given in the only Spanish bird book for Costa Rica, Aves de Costa Rica. Note that these have not been changing like the English names and thus often parallel the old English names. PLUS I include the Otros nombres en español that are included in the above Spanish bird book since different regions of the country use different names.
  • The Latin Scientific Name of every bird has recently been added to my gallery of Costa Rica Birds.
  • And as I try to do with all my photos in all my galleries, I have included the specific location in which each bird was photographed. That can particularly help birders who are looking for a specific species they have not yet seen or photographed.
  • All of the above information is included on each photo in the galleries as Keywords making searches easier. 
  • Downloading photo files is free from any of my galleries. Just look for the downward pointing arrow below an enlarged image or use the old fashion way with a right click.
  • You can order quality prints or wall art on metal or canvas of any of the images you consider good enough for those purposes. I have some bad images just to show that a bird was seen in a particular place, but some of my images make great wall art and I personally prefer the ones printed on metal. This is a service of SmugMug Galleries with Bay Photos. This is not a source of income for me and thus my markup is only $1.
  • There is also a link at the top of every page to my Bookstore where you can find find my books of bird photos and many other Costa Rica subjects!

If you love the birds of Costa Rica, I hope you will find my photo galleries helpful to you in studying and learning the locations of these many birds!

Just one of the 360 galleries.

¡Pura Vida!

AM Garden Bird Sightings

These are just the ones I recently photographed with the Saltator and Yellow Warbler seen less often but not really rare and the other 4 regulars seen almost daily now with the White-winged Dove and Chachalaca also fairly regular but no pix this time. Now that the wind is starting to lessen, I expect to see a lot more birds! There are few butterflies now, but their “big season” here seems to be June to October, so I look forward to that also! Here’s one bird for the email notice and 5 more below that online . . .

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica. Note the long white tongue sticking out of the red and black bill!  🙂

 

Continue reading “AM Garden Bird Sightings”

Calle Nueva won’t be “Country” Much Longer

And as a nature lover, I do not always embrace “progress” that henders nature, but as always, I learn to live with it!  🙂 This old dirt country road called “Calle Nueva” winds over three or four hills through the woods and farms on the western edge of Pueblo Atenas running from the western side of town to the nearby village of Rio Grande at the entrance to Ruta 27, our controlled access highway between San Jose and Jaco Beach. This narrow country dirt road has been considered an emergency exit road in case of a disaster requiring evacuation. Now it is about to become a major street or road to enter or exit Atenas. They first graded and widened it to 9 meters taking a few trees and lots of wild flower with their backhoes, graders and chainsaws. Now they have started at the Rio Grande end widening it to 14 meters and paving it! Working this way! And more than half finished! Already traffic has increased and when all is paved it will stay busy!

Where I enter Calle Nueva, just past Colegio Técnico on Avenida 10, with new black gravel up to the little one lane bridge where it is back to the plain red dirt again.

Of course I am disappointed that I am about to lose my little “shady lane” country road for birding and butterflies along with other nature photography, but even with pavement and more cars it will for a while have more birds and other nature than city streets, just gradually the farms along this road will be turned into housing developments as more foreigners move here in both retirement like me AND now so many younger adults who work on the internet and can live anywhere are choosing to live here! 🙂  It’s all part of our big changing world! At least I’m already living in one of those more desirable places in the world to live! 🙂

Recently graded and widened to 9 meters and soon to 14 meters and paved!

I will continue to walk this road for its nature until there is no more nature. The additional people, traffic and greater speed of vehicles will discourage the birds and other animals in time, but for now it is still a nature path, even when the pavement goes down. And I will continue to document here the birds and butterflies I find through these woods and farms, but for you who live here, be aware than “progress” is coming!  🙂

More photos of the road below from my March 10 sunrise walk . . .

Continue reading “Calle Nueva won’t be “Country” Much Longer”

Birds on Calle Nueva

7 days ago, Friday, March 10, I left my house at 5:40 am and took the city streets for the 20 minute walk to Calle Nueva alongside Roca Verde but with no entrance from our development. I saw a few birds on the city streets enroute and then a little past Colegio Técnico (our technical high school on 10th Ave.) I always start seeing birds and continue to as I cross the stream and go up the hill alongside Roca Verde. I’ll do a post about the road tomorrow and explain why I think birds have decreased there and will more in the future, but for today here’s the 11 birds I got useable photos of for the blog and darn it! I missed snapping the 2 Motmots I saw!  🙂

First a photo I consider kind of “artsy” – a black bird on black & silver power lines with the morning sunrise turning the clouds in front of him black & orange as he seems to stare at them in unbelief!  🙂  Sort of dramatic, don’t you think?  🙂

Great-tailed Grackle watching the sunrise on Calle Nueva in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Continue reading “Birds on Calle Nueva”