Tag: Amazon Kingfisher

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Amazon Kingfisher – Speed-fisher!

It’s a joy to watch these amazing birds dive lightening fast into the water from a tree branch to catch a small fish. Usually successfully! This Amazon Kingfisher is the biggest of these 4 Kingfishers that can be seen in Tortuguero waters (with links to my gallery of each):

  1. Amazon Kingfisher
  2. Ringed Kingfisher
  3. Green Kingfisher
  4. American Pygmy Kingfisher

Note that there are two other species of Kingfishers in Costa Rica, the Belted Kingfisher I’ve seen in other areas and the Green and Rufous Kingfisher which I am yet to see but the book says is on this Caribbean side of the country. Here’s photos from this trip of 1 male and 1 female Amazon Kingfisher which if you are still in the email notice you can see larger and better on the blog website, by clicking the blog title above.

Amazon Kingfisher male, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica
Amazon Kingfisher female, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And for more info and a location map of where found in only tropical Central and South America, see the eBird page.

BONUS READ

“Love thy neighbor (no exceptions)” article in the Friends Journal on simply following the example of Jesus.  🙂

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Kingfishers

There are 4 kinds of Kingfishers here at Maquenque and so far I’ve photographed 3 of those species. I’ve seen Green Kingfisher here before but not this week so far. Here’s the three species I’ve got with two shots of the Amazon because he looks different in each shot. CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Amazon Kingfisher
  • American Pygmy Kingfisher
  • Ringed Kingfisher
  • Amazon Kingfisher

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Cañon Negro Birds, Part 2

Mangrove Cuckoo
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Great Blue Heron (Running from A Caiman?)
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Black-collared Hawk
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Amazon Kingfisher male
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Sungrebe (non-breeding male)
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Neotropic Cormorant
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

Black-necked Stilt
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica
Roseate Spoonbills
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica
Could not get closer. We were not in the boat but walking in mud!

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
Cañon Negro Reserve, Costa Rica

See Yesterday’s Post for the other 9 photos of birds there that I’m sharing, including a Squirrel Cuckoo and Laughing Falcon. Then Monday I shared only the Harris’s Hawk, maybe my favorite, which we saw driving back from Cañon Negro.

About Cañon Negro Wildlife Refuge  (Wikipedia)  Tomorrow some scenery & people there

Or for more of my general photos see the gallery Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA


So far, every new trip I make in Costa Rica yields at least one new species of birds photo for me. And this trip was no exception! On this post the new ones for me are the Mangrove Cuckoo and Black-collared Hawk. And new ones the last two days were the Harris’s Hawk and Laughing Falcon! Four more species added to my collection this week! Not bad!
And that collection is my Birds photo gallery
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Cañon Negro Birds, Part 1

Squirrel Cuckoo 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

Anhinga female 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

Yellow-throated Toucan 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica
Green Heron 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica
Amazon Kingfisher female 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica
Boat-billed Heron 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

Laughing Falcon 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

Red-winged Blackbird 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

Social Flycatcher building a nest 
Cañon Negro, Costa Rica

And 9 more tomorrow night, then we start on Tenorio and more from the lodge. Tomorrow (Wed.) I ride the buses back to Atenas.

And my Birds photo gallery

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Last of Tarcoles Animal Photos

I got a few more photos, but not really good enough to show (and maybe some of these neither!)

Tarcoles River before flowing into the Pacific Ocean, an hour+ drive from Atenas.
Adjacent to Carara National Park, the last transitional rainforest in the Americas.
Tarcoles, Costa Rica
Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Amazon Kingfisher, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Boat-billed Heron, a better photo than shown first day.
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Royal Tern, Tarcoles River Mouth, Costa Rica
Black-crowned Night Heron, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Snowy Egret, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
(With trash all around him!)

White-tailed Hawk, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Brown Basilisk (Striped Basilisk), Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Mangrove Crab, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Juvenile American Crocodile, Tarcoles, Costa Rica

See also my Costa Rica Birds PHOTO GALLERY

Costa Rica Reptiles  PHOTO GALLERY
THE FUTURE OF TARCOLES RIVER?

“That’s what people do when they find a special place that wild and full of life, they trample it to death.” 
― Carl Hiaasen, Flush

I’m hoping that won’t happen to Tarcoles River, but during Dry Season it is full of tourists coming to see the crocodiles and what is worse, the government is building two hydroelectric dams upstream on the Tarcoles River. Plus it has already been labeled “the most polluted river in Costa Rica” as many Central Valley towns dump their sewage and industrial waste into it. Wildness is slowly disappearing everywhere, even in one of the “green” countries! And the lack of rain thus far in this year’s rainy season has been shocking to me!

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More Tarcoles Pix

Billed as a “Crocodile Tour” but we saw more than 20 species of birds too!
Yeah, that’s me! See, Costa Rica hasn’t changed me much!

I have a photo gallery with at least one photo of each of the 20+ birds and animals photographed in my PBase Gallery. Here are four more of those for the blog readers.

My new friend Barry in the photo op sign at Jose’s Crocodile Tour.
He did one of me in this too! The tour guys get closer than this to crocs.
Belted Kingfisher
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Little Blue Heron
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Maybe some more from Tarcoles tomorrow, or to see now hit this link to my PBase Gallery.

Explanation of trashy, muddy banks of river: it was at low tide. We were near mouth of river where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. This is the same river that my neighbor from Spain is building a dam on, further inland of course. We nature lovers don’t like the dams, but it is one of very few in Costa Rica.

My Trip Advisor Review of this trip with photos!