Tag: Tortuga Lodge and Gardens

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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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Bird with an Attitude

The Great-tailed Grackle (eBird link) is a lanky blackbird with a ridiculously long tail and what seems to me a rather haughty attitude!  🙂

They are seen from the western U.S. throughout all of Central American and I have seen in almost every area of Costa Rica. Though a land bird, I seem to see more near water or marshy areas like Tortuguero. Here’s just 4 of my photos from Tortuguero and I’m particularly proud of this portrait of a female (always brown while males are black with blue/purple sheen). And I think both shots of males below demonstrate the attitude I spoke of above.  🙂

 

Female Great-tailed Grackle, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

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Lost Photos: Collared Aracari

I shoot my animal shots with a fast shutter speed in the Canon automatic “Sports-Action Mode” to freeze the action of always moving birds and butterflies! That is the fast click,click,click you hear sometimes from a camera, and it means I get lots of photos (thousands) that I have to go through to delete bad ones and sort according to subject, thus very time consuming! And with so many file folders on my computer I sometimes misplace images as I did with these Collared Aracari eating red berries in a tree behind my cabin one day. They are much better shots than the ones I used on that earlier 3 Toucan Species post, so I just have to give them their own post!  🙂  Occasionally you do luck into good sunlight from the right direction to make an okay image as with these (unlike the Aracaris in the other post):

Collared Aracari eating berries, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica
Collared Aracari eating red berries, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

And for more of this bird, my CR Collared Aracari GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Nesting & Eating in Rain

These Pale-vented Pigeons did not let the rain stop them from feeding and nesting in the daily rains at Tortuguero. The mother is on her nest under the eve of the outdoor restaurant at Tortuga Lodge and the others in the trees looking for food!

Pale Vented Pigeon, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

And 2 more photos, including the nest . . .

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Capuchin & Spider Monkeys

Yesterday was the Howler Monkey with the other two types in the Caribbean lowlands today, the White-faced Capuchin Monkey and the Central American Spider Monkey.

White-faced Capuchin Monkey in the Rain, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

Below is a two-photo gallery on each species plus a link to the trip gallery for each where I have several more photos, plus links to my Costa Rica galleries of each where I have even more photos from my 8 years of living in Costa Rica. Enjoy!  🙂

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Mantled Howler Monkeys

While at Tortuguero I saw all three of the monkeys that live in that rainforest, but, as usual, the Mantled Howler Monkeys were the most photogenic with White-faced Capuchin next, often showing off, and the Spider Monkeys the most difficult to photograph as they frantically run through the tree tops like out of control hyper children. I’ll show these other two in tomorrow’s post as I continue a break from the many birds.

Mantled Howler Monkey, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica – Fruit for lunch!

Two more photos below or you can see even more photos from this trip in my Howler Monkeys 2023 Tortuguero GALLERY or  see all my Mantled Howler Monkeys GALLERY from my 8 years in Costa Rica, including a nursing mother and other juveniles.

Continue reading “Mantled Howler Monkeys”

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Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

“Weird Bird” some might say, especially with some of his unusual postures when drying feathers or otherwise standing around!  🙂 But always one I enjoy trying to photograph! For more photos beyond these 4, see my Bare-throated Tiger-Heron GALLERY. All were photographed from a moving boat at Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

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Little Blue Heron – Patient Fisher

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!  🙂

Little Blue Heron, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

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3 Toucan Species

There are 3 species of toucans on each side of Costa Rica with the Keel-billed and Yellow-throated on both sides and a different Aracari (smaller toucan) on each side, Collared Aracari on the Caribbean (Atlantic) side and Fiery-billed Aracari on the Pacific slopes. And of course this past week I was in the Caribbean. Here’s two shots of each species with a link to my gallery for that species if you want to see more and different photos. One photo for the email notice and then the three galleries online . . .

Keel-billed Toucan, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica

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Tortuguero Dragonflies

I managed to get usable photos of 5 dragonflies while in the Tortuguero wetlands but cannot guarantee the identification of the four I’ve labeled. The fifth one never landed and thus my photos of him flying are next to impossible to identify, so I just labeled him “unidentified,”  and one or more of the others could be also.  🙂

Red-mantled Dragonlet, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

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