Looking over the meadow across from my house where he will feed, this male has a black band across his back which is the shadow of another powerline above him. 🙂 I’ve seen both male & female of these all over Costa Rica as shown in my gallery at: Blue-black Grassquit, Volatinia jacarina, including that first trip to Costa Rica while at Carate on the Osa Peninsula in 2009. Note that he is similar to the Blue-black Grosbeak I recently shared a photo of, but smaller. Both feed on the grasses (seeds).
Blue-black Grassquit male, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
I think it is most likely the Telemiades nicomedes, but not sure, so giving it the genus name. iNaturalist uses the genus name a lot as you can see on this Genus Telemiades page of iNaturalist Costa Rica.
Telemiades Genus of Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
As my last post from the Tortuguero Adventure, I’m introducing just one of several unusual flowers at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens which help them live up to the “gardens” part of their name. The iNaturalist AI is “confident” that the flowers in both of these photos are in the Genus Columnea (linked to Wikipedia taxonomy article) or you can see other examples in Costa Rica that have been submitted with that genus, including some with specific species, on iNaturalistCR-Genus-Columnea. And as the first “suggestion” species on both these similar but different photos, they give the species name Columnea nicaraguensis. (linked to photos of that species on iNaturalist Costa Rica). And that is most likely the correct species of these two photos even though they seem a little different.
Columnea nicaraguensis, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa RicaColumnea nicaraguensis, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
Be sure to check out the FLOWERS gallery in the Trip Gallery and notice other interesting flowers like the Peacock Flower, Night-scented Orchid and Pheasant’s Tail! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Tomorrow it is back to photos from my garden and for about a week, shots made in early September that I held for now. 🙂
Photo made by Charlie Doggett on a Samsung J8 Cellphone during dinner in the restaurant of Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica, September 8, 2025.
For the last two weeks I’ve shared photos made on my 4-night trip to “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” Tortuguero National Park. And that was only the “tip of the iceberg” of the many photos made. See them all in the above gallery! Having this kind of nature adventures is why I chose to live out my retirement in Costa Rica and it has already surpassed my hopes and dreams and though I have to slow down some, the adventures continue! Sometimes in my little backyard garden! 🙂
out of the 3 that live in Tortuguero were photographed on my trip there more than a week ago now. I always see monkeys in Tortuguero, both at the lodges and on the boat trips or forest trail hikes like I did on the Jaguar Trail this trip. Here’s just 2 shots, one each of a Mantled Howler Monkey and a Central American Spider Monkey. My Trip Gallery is now finished, so you can now see several shots of each species there:
And oh yes, the third monkey usually seen in Tortuguero is the White-faced Capuchin Monkey (linked to my species gallery) but I did not see one this time, which is unusual. They are the most aggressive of the three and will steal food from your bags, etc.
Here’s one shot each of the Howler and Spider monkeys from this trip . . .
One of the many interesting things seen on my Jaguar Trail hike (Tortuguero) was a Northern Tamandua, a type of anteater. He was high in the many dark shady trees and thus very difficult to photograph, but here are 3 photographs that give you an idea of this larger than monkeys but smaller than an adult man, looking like he is wearing black coveralls or vest or suspenders! 🙂 You can see the few other photos I’ve made in other parts of Costa Rica of this interesting mammal in my gallery: Anteater, Northern Tamandua, Tamandua mexicana.This one lives throughout Central America from Southern Mexico to the northern edges of the Andes, though there is also another, larger, species of anteater in South America called “Giant Anteater.” Here’s 3 photos made on one of my hikes in Tortuguero National Park a week or so ago . . .
This Heliconius erato (scientific name) has the English Common Name of “Red Postman” as opposed to the Heliconius melpomene rosina (my gallery link) which is often called just plain “Postman.” There is only a slight difference in both the red and the white bars on these two similar butterflies
And note that this one in today’s post has a very long Spanish Common Name here in Costa Rica: “Mariposa de Alas Largas de Bandas Carmesí.” See more of my many photos of this “Red Postman” Heliconius erato in that linked gallery. The two photos here were made near my room at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
Erato Heliconian or Red Postman, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa RicaContinue reading “Red Postman”
