Tag: Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge

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Blue-winged Helicopter Damselfly

This is a “lifer” or first time seen damselfly for me! It was alongside one of the trails in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Cost Rica week-before-last. It is more striking or noticeable in a thick forest like that than a lot of the dragon & damselflies. Again, you never know when nor where you will see what, but I thank God for each new nature experience wherever I am! 🙂

Blue-winged Helicopter Damselfly, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

I have a total of 4 shots in my new gallery: Blue-wing Helicopter and if you like damsel and dragonflies, check out my others in: DRAGONFLIES & DAMSELFLIES CR (52+)

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Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth

Updated Version on 3 October 2026

It has been a while since I’ve photographed a sloth and this one was at Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica on this year’s South Caribe trip, at eye-level on a very leafy tree as we were exiting the park. You never know when or where you will see the next wildlife photo op! 🙂 To see more of my sloth photos, go to the galleries: Sloth, Hoffman’s Two-toed and Sloth, Brown-throated Three-toed (linked). And note that I embarrassed myself, not only with the wrong ID in the first edition of this post, but on iNat where two people told me it was 2-toed and I said back, “count them in the photos.” Wellllll . . . I just learned that the 2-toed is thus on front but has 3-toes on the back, which now I see is obvious in this particular photo. I’m red-faced!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Common Black Hawk . . .

. . . used to be one of the birds I photographed at Banana Azul every year, but not this year. (I did see one fly off one day.) But I got several shots of this one in Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge and we saw him in 3 or 4 places searching for crabs (his favorite food) or other small animals to eat. Just two shots here, but you can see more in my gallery: Common Black Hawk (linked). It is found from the Southwestern U.S. south through Mexico and all of Central America to the northern shores of South America. We have them on both slopes of Costa Rica.

Common Black Hawk, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Collared Aracari

This small toucan is found from Mexico south to Columbia and Venezuela. In Costa Rica it is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope with the only ones on the Pacific side being in the Northwest or the Nicoya Peninsula. While his first cousin, the Fiery-billed Aracari is found along the Central and Southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. That includes Atenas where I’ve had Fiery-billed in my garden. It looks like this one except for the red bill. See my other photos of this one in my gallery: Collared Aracari (linked).

Collared Aracari, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!