Category: Birds

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Red-lored Parrot

Red-lored Parrot, Tortuguero, Costa Rica

It looks like it will be next week before I get all my shots from Tortuguero processed, so here is one more! He is the only parrot we saw and I am pleased with this shot. But there are still several more shots of birds to share! (And 3 species of monkeys, several lizards, and one snake.) And I assume you know that all of these were shot in the wild! Tortuguero is a terrific place for nature lovers!


“We need the tonic of wildness… We can never have enough of nature.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

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Exploring Tortuguero

Green Basilisk or “Jesus Christ Lizard” (because he walks on water)
It is also called emerald, plumed, or double-crested basilisk (Nat’l Geographic)
From a boat on Tortuguero River – CLICK TO ENLARGE

We are busy & upload is slow, so I’m saving the bird photos for when we are home tomorrow or later this week. Lots of birds! Good tours today! I recommend Laguna Lodge at Tortuguero!

And if you are going to the west coast or especially Manuel Antonio, I recommend our guide for these 3 days who usually works over in Manuel Antonio National Park. His name is Robert Umaña, robert.uma8@gmail.com or call (506) 8881-2240. He is very personable and well organized and good at finding birds. Though I have had guides more knowledgeable of birds, he is going to continue getting better as a young man. And he is real good about taking a picture for you with your cell phone through his spotting scope, which I find very impressive for most people from the U.S. And he is very patient with people which is important for a professional guide. Guides here are trained by the government and certified which means most are good and that is a big plus for Costa Rica tourism! I’ve never had a bad guide, just some are better than others. Robert’s one of the best!

Follow Reagan’s Blog for his view of his visit here! He is not into birds like me or the wildness, but he likes the adventure and the opportunities to make photos and share them just like me! So we are both having a good experience in “The Amazon of Costa Rica.”   Pura Vida!

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ZooAVE and Zoo of a Dinner

We visited Zoo Ave in La Garita today with Abe and Nancy Docktar and then joined Jean and Carolyn for dinner tonight at a local gringo restaurant with a Nashville Band (of retired gringos here) called “FlashBack” playing oldies. An Interesting day!
Flash Back plays for dancing at Augostos Restaurant tonight
Scarlet Macaw at Zoo Ave
Keel-billed Toucan at Zoo Ave
An Injured Toucan rescued and nursed to health
Green Iguana, one of many around the park
Wild Spectacled Owl visiting Zoo Ave
Striped Owl at Zoo Ave
Crested Owl at Zoo Ave
Emu at Zoo Ave
Great Curassow Male at Zoo Ave
Great Curassow Female at Zoo Ave
Squirrel Monkey at Zoo Ave
Spider Monkey at Zoo Ave
Helicopter Damselfly at Zoo Ave
Baird’s Tapir or Central American Tapir at Zoo Ave

Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.~Jack Hanna

IMPORTANT NOTE: In 2020 this facility has been “rebranded” to eliminate the zoo concept and is now called Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center.

Follow Reagan’s Blog for his view of his visit here!

¡Pura Vida!
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Palm Tanager

Palm Tanager
In my cecropia or yagrumo Tree
These first two shots were made at lunch today on my terrace while the
weaker 3rd photo made at breakfast yesterday was almost my only shot!
When you keep trying there will be a better shot eventually! Hopefully!
Palm Tanager
In my terrace cecropia or yagrumo tree.
Different shots show different aspects of a bird.
Palm Tanager Makes a Good Landing!
I love to catch a bird landing or taking off!
These are on my terrace rail at breakfast. Not best light for photo.
I make my identification with app and 2 books, my best call, not 100%!
Made the day before the top two shots. Click for larger image. 

This is in the family of the more common Blue-gray Tanager that I’ve photographed many times and the book says has a similar song. This is my first time to photograph these guys.

My Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery   OR   All My Costa Rica Photo Galleries


Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art.  ~Izaak Walton

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Black-cowled Oriole

Black-cowled Oriole
Inside my house on a screen
Black-cowled Oriole
Inside my house as seen from outside before I opened the screen.
He flew away, probably fearful of houses now.

During the day when at home I leave the garden door without a screen open and the sliding glass doors and screens to the terrace open, thus easy for wildlife to sometimes explore inside.  🙂

When this happens I open all the other screens and then try to open the one he is on. As is often the case, when I started sliding this one (from the outside) he flew the other way out another window and up into a tree! I leave nothing fully open at night. Had a bat once and trying to avoid that if I can. 
From Charlie! Retired in Costa Rica!

See my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery with 156 species I’ve photographed in Costa Rica so far! And with about 900 species of birds here, I have a ways to go!   🙂

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The Last Birds from Rancho Naturalista (Maybe)

Green Thorntail Hummingbird
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
3rd species of woodpeckers at this one place.
Lots of bugs to eat!  🙂

Brown Jay
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Yellow-crowned Euphonia Female or Yellow Warbler Female
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Better shot than one posted the first day.

Green Thorntail Hummingbird
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Different day, different bird and look than top of this post

Black-headed Saltator
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Black-headed Saltator
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
A totally different look than the photo before this, but same bird!

Social Flycatcher
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
Bumble Bee (I think – no ID source)
Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica
I’m still going through my photos and may find some more good ones, but this is the last official post from Rancho Naturalista. It is amazing how just 3 nights at a lodge almost anywhere in Costa Rica can give me such joy and so many photos! And so many new species each time. This is my main reason for moving to Costa Rica and why you can expect me to stay here!  🙂

If interested, I reviewed both Rancho Naturalista and CATIE on TripAdvisor with a few of the photos, though they are “pending” as I write this, possibly for screening of some kind.

I heard the sweet voice of a robin,      High up in the maple tree,      Joyously, singing his happy song      To his feathered mate, in glee!… 

If we could be like this tiny bird,      Just living from day to day,      Holding no bitterness in our hearts      For those we meet on our way… 

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, “Heaven on Earth” (1940s)

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Today’s Birds

Just 7 of about 300 photos today.
Above is Green-breasted Mango Hummingbird.

Chestnut-sided Warbler
(My favorite shot of the day)

Crested Oropendola  Note head is different from Montezuma Oropendola
My first time to photograph this one!
Red-throated Ant-tanager
with a moth it just caught.

Mottled Owl
Olive-backed Euphonia

Crowned Wood-nymph Hummingbird

Crowned Woodnymph Hummingbird
My guide here says it looks so different from the other one
above because of the different light. Other one in deep forest.

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Birds Galore!

This is just a sample of the birds I photographed at the lodge this morning before going out to a park! It will take a while to share all the birds I’m photographing here!

Montezuma Oropendola from the breakfast terrace

Lineated Woodpecker in front of lodge
White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird male at breakfast terrace

Gray-headed Chachalaca joining us for breakfast

Keel-billed Toucan seen from breakfast terrace

All of this and much, much more at Rancho Naturalista near Turrialba, Costa Rica.

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Groove-billed Ani

Groove-billed Ani, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Though fairly common and widespread all over Costa Rica, I haven’t seen many here. This was one of four in my yellow-bell tree just off my terrace. From a distance he can be confused with the Melodious Blackbird, but a closer look at the bill is the difference in these two all black birds with black eyes, the only two totally black. I made an out-of-focus photo of one at La Jacaranda last January, but this is a much better image. Also back then I called that one a Smooth-billed Ani which is almost the same, without the grooves on top bill which is also a little higher pitched. But they only appear in the South Pacific area of Costa Rica, so I renamed it there and in my online photo gallery of Costa Rica Birds. 

Cornell Lab Site on the Groove-billed Ani, an unusual bird

“Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?”   ~Rose Kennedy

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Birds of San Gerardo de Dota

All photographed in the San Gerardo de Dota, along the road or at Mariam’s Quetzals Cabins in the steep mountain canyon along the Savegre River, Talamanca Mountains, Costa Rica, at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level (72,178 feet). It was cold in the nights and early mornings!

Acorn Woodpecker (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Sooty Thrush (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-colored Tanager Male (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-colored Tanager Female (1st sighting for me)
Immature Rufous-collared Sparrow below her
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Emerald Toucanet (1st sighting in wild for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
(Fruits are wild avocados, favorite food of Quetzals)

Black-capped Flycatcher (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Black-billed Nightingale Thrush (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Possibly a White-throated Thrush or Nightingale (?)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-throated Finch (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
Resplendent Quetzal Female
No males seen even though they were the reason we went to this place.
I had better luck on my two other trips here. See my Quetzal Gallery.
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Violet-headed or Magnificent Hummingbird
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Magnificent Female or Green Hermit Hummingbird
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Fiery-throated, Magnificent or Violet-headed Hummingbird (?)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
I did this birding experience with the Birding Club of Costa Rica after my personal 2-day retreat at Rio Chirripo in the same mountain range. A productive and full week! Lots of new birds!
Tomorrow I go to the Pacific coast and the port city of Puntarenas with the Atenas Community Band to a band festival and parade with bands from all over the country. The public high school near me, Colegio Liceo, is also going from Atenas. It will be an interesting one-day bus trip to the hot coast with a bunch of noisy kids. Then Thursday I go to the Nicaragua border again to renew my visa. So it may be a couple of more days without a post. We’ll see!  🙂  Then October 8 I go back to to the Caribbean Coast to explore some more and birding with the club at Manzanillo.  Pura Vida!