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Striking colors and striking patience is how I see this common water bird, the Little Blue Heron. I can’t stop photographing him! 🙂 These 3 shots are typical of this bird and they were shot from a moving boat! But he didn’t move! 🙂
This morning’s rain not only interfered with a beautiful sunrise but also dampened my birding expedition with a great guide this morning. I try not to give up too quickly on such efforts, but did cut our hike a little shorter after my camera fogged up on the inside. All 12 of the following birds were photographed in the rain even if not obvious! 🙂 And we saw more birds and other animals, even in the rain! 🙂 Just imagine what it would have been like with a clear morning!
In some ways the Little Blue Heron (eBird description) is more photogenic than the Great Blue Heron, maybe because most are a solid color. See my other shots in my Little Blue Heron Gallery from 9 different locations in Costa Rica. I like bird photos with simple, solid backgrounds like this one, plus he’s flying with great aerodynamics! 🙂 But I also like traditional portraits like the one I’m including below as an extra. Both photos were made at or near Rancho Humo which you can read more about in The Backstory below.
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Costa Rica |
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| Little Blue Heron Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Costa Rica |
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| Great Blue Heron Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Costa Rica |
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| Green Heron Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Costa Rica |
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| Green Ibis Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Costa Rica |
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| Cattle Egret Flying over Sarapiquí River, Selva Verde Lodge, Chilamate, Costa Rica Evening flight to roosting tree. |
I did two boat trips from the town of Puerto Viejo on the two rivers that merge near there, the Sarapiqui River and the Puerto Viejo River. The afternoon trip was not bad but the morning trip had more birds and they were somewhat different birds the two times.
See also my Photo Gallery of Costa Rica Birds
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| Boat-billed Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Willet Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Bronzed Cowbird (most likely for this area, though others similar) Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Spotted Sandpiper Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Spotted Sandpiper (juvenile, thus no spots) Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow Warbler Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Mangrove Hummingbird Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (Not really this fat, he just fluffed out his feathers) |
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| Little Blue Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Panama Flycatcher Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Wood Stork Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Tricolor Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Magnificent Frigatebird female Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Magnificent Frigatebird males, juvenile Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
And my constantly growing BIRDS Photo Gallery online
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| Groove-billed Ani
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Crane Hawk
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
This is my first sighting of this bird.
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| Black-crowned Night Heron
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Crested Caracara Juvenile (or young adult)
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
This was a “first sighting” of this guy. It’s usually Yellow-headed Caracara.
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| Spotted Sandpiper
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Little Blue Heron
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Boat-billed Heron
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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| Mangrove Swallow
Tempisque River, Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
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My computer is working properly again! And I haven’t even taken it to the shop yet! Maybe it is the weather here it likes better! 🙂 So I was able to upload these photos! Of course I have many more and we did not see as many birds as might have been possible because it was windy the whole time we were on the river. (Birds don’t fly much when it is windy! They hide in the bushes!) We also saw some other animals which I will show tomorrow. Below is a photo of the kind of boat we floated on, though only the two of us plus our guide and boat captain.
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| There are several tour boat companies here like at Rio Tarcoles & Rio Frio. Tomorrow I will show the above boat passengers acting like tourists. 🙂 |
Had it not been windy, we would have seen more smaller birds including hummingbirds, but weather is just part of life! Pura Vida!
See my photo gallery of BIRDS OF COSTA RICA
Or all my BIRDS OF CENTRAL AMERICA for even more!
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| Little Blue Heron chick Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Little Blue Heron Momma near the above nest Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Great Egret Nests on one of the mangrove islands Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua The majority of the nests were Great Egrets, but other birds mixed with them. |
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| Great Egret Nests are very close together! Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Great Egret mother and chicks Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Great Egret Chicks (the closeup you wanted to see) Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Boat-billed Heron & Chick Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Boat-billed Heron Juvenile Learning to Fly Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Tiger Heron Chick Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
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| Anhinga Chick (we saw Momma nearby, the only Anhingas seen) Juan Venado Wildlife Refuge, Leon, Nicaragua |
Wow! I’m having fun! There are so many neat places like this for short and brief trips and this is just the beginning of bird photos from these two days. There will be many more the next few days and some other animals and interesting sights too! So much to see!
And don’t miss my Nicaragua Birds photo gallery for 98 different species!
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| Snowy Egret flies in to Tricolored Heron Selva Negra Mountain Resort, Nicaragua |
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| Little Blue Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Green Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Tricolored Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Snowy Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Snowy Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Great Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
From our Tortuguero Trip last week I have already shown photos of 3 Species of Toucans, a Sungrebe, a Red-lored Parrot, and a Snowy Egret. And here are about 15 more species that I got photos of plus of course seeing others. You can see why I love Tortuguero! And a few of these were first-time sightings for me which will be added to my Birds of Costa Rica Photo Gallery.
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| Belted Kingfisher, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Little Blue Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Montezuma Oropendola, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Female Anhinga, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Male Anhinga, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Great Curassow Female, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica Interesting note: This nest was above the outdoor bar at Laguna Lodge. I watched the male bring twigs and female arrange them. Fun! |
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| Royal Tern Juvenile, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Osprey, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Long-tailed Grackle Female, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Northern Jacana, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Common Black Hawk, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Orange-breasted Falcon or Bat Falcon or Black-collared Hawk ???Tortuguero, Costa Rica If you can narrow the identification down, please contact me! Wings only is tough to ID! |
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| Social Flycatcher (most likely) or Great Kiskadee or White-ringed Flycatcher, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Roseate Spoonbill, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Mangrove Hummingbird, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (Proud of this! A rare shot! Got another of his back, all green.) |
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| Wilson’s Plover, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| White Ibis, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Egret, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (Our morning ballet?) |
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| Whimbrel strolling with big brother Spoonbill, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (It’s kind of like me hanging out with Ticos!) 🙂 |
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| Juvenal Little Blue Heron , Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Juvenal Yellow-crowned Night Heron,Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Olivaceous Cormorants, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |