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The last bird I will post about from the Villa Lapas & Carara Park trip is not a good photo but a cool bird! The Golden-hooded Tanager, Stilpnia larvata (eBird link) was this time photographed inside Carara Park and is one I’ve seen all over Costa Rica as noted in my Golden-hooded Tanager GALLERY where there are some much better photos than this one in the shadows.
¡Pura Vida!
A pirate because he steals nests made by other birds, the Piratic Flycatcher, Legatus leucophaiuss (eBird link) is not new to me, but these were difficult to identify at first, even confusing one with the Streaked Flycatcher, but he was not large enough. I had several sightings of this bird during my 2 hours in Carara Park and I’m now reasonably certain of these identifications, even with poor light and shadow problems. I’ve seen this species in three other locations (Arenal, Xandari & Monteverde) as shown in my Piratic Flycatcher Gallery. Here’s three totally different photos of the same species . . .
In Carara National Park on my last morning in Tarcoles, I barely got photos (in poor light) of this Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus (eBird link) before and after he caught an insect for his breakfast. 🙂
I have some much better photos in my Tropical Kingbird Gallery. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Yes! He’s a hero! Nature’s sanitation engineer or garbage collector if you prefer, but all the species of vultures keep our natural world clean and more beautiful for people like me to explore! And I think they are “handsome” in their own special way! 🙂 These two photographed at Hotel Villa Lapas in Tarcoles are each a Black Vulture, Coragyps atratus (eBird link) and you can see more of my CR vulture photos in their 3 different species galleries:
And here’s just two photos from Villa Lapas, one on the ground and one flying above . . .
Everywhere I go in Costa Rica I see Clay-colored Thrush and Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus (eBird link). And therefore I was not surprised to see many of the Great Kiskadee at Hotel Villa Lapas in Tarcoles. And this time I got a good shot of a Kiskadee Nest with a Kiskadee coming in and out of it, though sadly it had been built on an electrical power pole. Here’s four shots and you can see more in my Great Kiskadee Gallery.
The Northern Waterthrush, Parkesia noveboracensis (eBird link), is a common bird found near water throughout North America, Central America and the northern portions of South America, but I’m sharing this lackluster photo because I haven’t seen very many here in Costa Rica. In my Northern Waterthrush Gallery I have photos of them from only 2 other places, the nearby Hotel Punta Leona and Maquenque Eco Lodge. Here’s one now from Hotel Villa Lapas in Tarcoles . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Another not often seen birds from Villa Lapas earlier this week is the Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Glyphorynchus spirurus (linked to eBird) which I’ve only seen one other time which was at Rancho Naturalista many years ago. They are another bird found throughout Central America and Northern South America. Here’s three photos from a tree by the bridge to my room.
I had a good birding hike this morning with Vicktor as my guide and got a lot of birds but haven’t had time to process all the photos yet, so here’s just one – the Turquoise-browed Motmot, Eumomota superciliosa (eBird link), one of the two main motmots in Costa Rica and this one is only found in Costa Rica north to Southern Mexico!
I will eventually share the photos of the other birds photographed this morning and eventually some photos from the Sky Way Bridges and Trails (a lot of steps!) from the 2 km mountain walk with a family of 5 from the states (the Mom born in CR) and our guide Stephanie. It was a nice, brisk, hour and a half mountain walk with pleasant people and I was hot and sweaty when we returned. 🙂
Tonight is the night hike for hopefully some good frog pix and in the morning I changed from the jungle wagon to another birding hike, this time in the Carara National Park when they open at 8am. Then leave for home at noon.
See my gallery of Turquoise-browed Motmots.
¡Pura Vida!
As I said in yesterday’s post, on the morning I published the second edition of my big butterfly book, I captured a photo of another new species that just barely made it into the book! 🙂 It is the Clench’s Greenstreak – Cyanophrys miserabilis and I adjusted the size of another Gossamer Wings butterfly in the book to make this last minute addition fit. Fun! And that is in addition to the other last minute addition of just 4 days before that when I got the Red-headed Firetip – Pyrrhopyge phidias at Macaw Lodge which I featured in an earlier blog post and also adjusted the size of another photo to make that Skipper butterfly fit in the book. 🙂 Here’s one shot of the Greenstreak for the email followed by a little gallery of 4 shots.
Though a lousy photo! It was my last photo made on the ground on this trip, just before getting on the airplane at the tiny Golfito Airport Terminal where I was waiting on the little plane to arrive inside the mostly glass building when a butterfly, Great Eurybia, flitted by and landed on the glass, inside the building, meaning terrible light for a photo, but here’s my cell phone camera effort, lightened up in Photoshop Elements 8 so that it is identifiable, just not a pretty photo! 🙂 It is my first sighting of this species, meaning I added three new butterflies on this trip! 🙂 This one found only in Costa Rica and Panama.
There is not a lot of information about this species online, but you can see the others posted on the website where these two photos will go at https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/eurybia-patrona or some better photos on another website. Though difficult to see in my photos, the eyes are black with a blue pupil and the orange eye-ring around it, the only Metalmark with this particular eye mark, thus a positive ID. 🙂 My collection is growing! See all my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries – 245+ species!
¡Pura Vida!
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