Canivet’s Emerald

is now one of my three regular hummingbirds along with the Rufous-tailed and the Blue-vented that surf my Porterweed flowers all day along with an occasional other flower and my feeders when filled (not often). Their second favorite flower seems to be the Torch Ginger or Bastón de Emperador. Both of these shots are of a female (white chest and white eyebrow) while the male has no white and thus I could be confusing him with the blue-vented which are very much alike.

Canivet’s Emerald, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Turkey Vulture

Vultures are so common all over the world and so important to the health of the planet! And I just can’t resist trying to photograph one every once in a while! 🙂 This common one here is a Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura (my gallery link) is the same one you see in the United States. I think they are beautiful when flying, though their underside is always in the shadows! 🙂

Turkey Vulture, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Turkey Vulture, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

You might be interested in my other galleries on different vultures both here and other places I’ve lived/traveled . . .

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Calle Nueva Birds

Had I been going there for birds like I used to, it would have been earlier, like 5:30 or 6 am! But even during this 8-10 am best time for butterflies, I saw a lot more than 3 birds, but this is all I photographed on Calle Nueva that morning, plus the Yellow-faced Grassquit (May 15 Post) in the cow pasture as I was getting back home. 🙂 Here’s the three other birds I got photos of on that nearby dirt road . . .

Inca Dove, Calle Nueva, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See my Inca Dove Gallery.

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Baby Chachalaca

“K,” my landlord up the hill from me came down the other day with a baby Chachalaca on his shoulder which their gardener found when trimming some trees. It was tiny then! And has bonded with the human family as his “mother” or family. They are hoping that when he can fly, he will fly off with the other Chachalacas. I hope so too! A large, adult Chachalaca will not make a good pet nor would it be good for the bird! We will see what happens. I suggested that another possibility is to take him to Rescate Animales in La Garita which recues wild animals and their babies. I’ll post a report when something significant happens. Here’s 3 cell phone pix:

Here he is on K’s arm.
K’s Chachalaca baby in one of my shrubs, eating the leaves.
And the baby bird on my arm! Sorry! I wasn’t dressed for a photo! 🙂

Link to my Chachalaca Gallery, Ortalis cinereiceps.

¡Pura Vida!

Yellow-faced Grassquit

Not new to me or Atenas where I live, the Yellow-faced Grassquit, Tiaris olivaceus (linked to eBird) is a type of seedeater (the beak says that) and in this case prefers grasses which you can see the male chewing on in that photo. It is a Latin American bird found throughout Central America, in the Caribbean Islands and the northern edges of South America.

In my GALLERY: Yellow-faced Grassquit you can see that I’ve photographed this bird multiple times in Atenas, where I live, plus once in Monteverde and once near Volcán Tenorio.

These shots of a male and a female I got on my return walk back from Calle Nueva searching for butterflies last week. I got the female first in the cow pasture in front of my house where I also saw the male but had to follow him to a neighbor’s yard to get this shot of him . . .

MALE Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

The female shots are my first of a female Yellow-faced Grassquit, unless that one juvenile or immature in my gallery was a female! 🙂 And I am very pleased with this FEMALE shot (a portrait for the gallery!) . . .

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The “Flower Restaurant”

. . . for my resident Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. And of course this Torch Ginger is just one of the many “Flower Restaurants” where he eats as I purposefully do not have feeders filled every day. It is more natural and healthier for the birds to eat from flowers. Here’s three shots from the other day in my garden . . .

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird on a Torch Ginger, “Bastón del Emperador,” Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird on a Torch Ginger, “Bastón del Emperador,” Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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His Singing Did It!

This Clay-colored Thrush, Yigüirro (my gallery link) was still singing after the rains started in April but they are here for sure now, almost every afternoon or evening, and he no longer needs to sing in the rain! 🙂

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush singing in Atenas, Costa Rica as the rains start!

¡Pura Vida!

Rufous-backed Wren

One of the common birds in my garden is the Rufous-backed Wren, Campylorhynchus capistratus (my gallery link) and here he is in the rain the other day, perched on a dead tree in a neighbor’s yard.

Rufous-backed Wren, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

This tiny little guy is still the self-appointed king of my garden, doing his best to chase other birds away. But I still get the other two species of hummingbirds some, just mostly on the flowers and not the feeders.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

My photo gallery for Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, the most often seen hummingbird by me, all over Costa Rica. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Yigüirro still singing . . .

. . . for the rains to begin. And hopefully that will be any day now! (And maybe before this is posted, since I’m scheduling posts about a week ahead now.) 🙂 The National Bird of Costa Rica, known in English as the Clay-colored Thrush, is I think a handsome bird, even when not singing all day like he does every April. Here are three recent shots of different individuals and you can see more in my Gallery: Clay-colored Thrush, Turdus grayi. 🙂

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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