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I believe this is a small or immature Tropical Kingbird in the shadows of my garden. I like the softness of the image even though not very sharp or in good light. 🙂 It could be a rare Western Kingbird, but I don’t think so with the faint white on the neck.
My Tropical Kingbird Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
This morning at breakfast a Tropical Kingbird sat in my Cecropia Tree for a minute or so and here’s a couple of shots:
You can read about the Tropical Kingbird on eBird, a bird found all over Central & South America. Or see my photos from all over Costa Rica in my CR Tropical Kingbird Gallery. And here’s one more photo from this morning:
Continue reading “Tropical Kingbird”
This is the last bird I will show from that nice morning walk up my hill with camera in hand! It is the fairly common Tropical Kingbird (eBird description link) and of course I have a lot more photos in my Tropical Kingbird Gallery from 18 different locations in Costa Rica! 🙂
Costa Rica is issuing a new Sloth Postage Stamp. ~Tico Times article 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Fairly common here, though not in my garden recently. Glad to see him again! My Tropical Kingbird Gallery inside my bigger Costa Rica Birds Gallery. And for more info, see the eBird Tropical Kingbird site.
Tropical Kingbird
¡Pura Vida!
But that was only the case for an hour or so Sunday morning for my early breakfast around 6 AM. By 7:30 or 8:00 the wind was blowing like normal this time of year, It is windy mid-December to Mid-March or later and I’m guessing later this year because the wind has been stronger. Since the “Windy Season” overlaps the “Dry Season” it creates a recipe for brush or grass fires, especially later in the season like right now. We had our annual grass fires in Roca Verde a week or so ago, so not as much dry grass left to burn. (I water my grass!) And as usual, we were fortunate to have no house on fire. Our local Atenas Bomberos (Firemen) are super good at stopping the fires quickly.
And my four morning birds are just ones that are very common in my yard, but it was nice to see them in my Cecropia tree at breakfast for a change! Maybe I should eat earlier every morning since it is less windy early. 🙂 They were . . .
Clay-colored Thrush called Yigüirro here, the national bird; Blue-gray Tanager; Tropical Kingbird; and the featured photo, Rufous-naped Wren. Links are to eBird pages on those birds.
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ~JESUS, Matthew 6:26
¡Pura Vida!
Tropical Kingbird is one of the more common birds in Costa Rica and I have seen him in my gardens several times before this photo. Yes, there are two other birds with similar coloring but clear distinctions can be seen between this and the Western Kingbird and Gray-capped Flycatcher. Click above name link for more information on the Tropical Kingbird.
Seeing and sometimes photographing birds like this in my garden is just one of the many joys I have in living here. Tranquilo is a favorite Spanish word used here to describe Atenas and translated to English that means “calm, quiet or peaceful.” Fellow residents like this Tropical Kingbird help make it so as do other birds in my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.
“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”
—Cicero
¡Pura Vida!
These are some of the most beautiful and interesting birds with some eating flies or ants and another one doing a “Michael Jackson Dance” to attract a female.
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
Hiker’s Bonus
The other day I told about the coast to coast hiking trail El Camino de Costa Rica and mentioned that the one section I hiked was nearly all uphill and I then decided I would not try to hike the entire trail. To visually see what I’m talking about as a mountains trail, see this Map with Elevation Chart of Camino de Costa Rica.
Of course you could also say that half the trail is downhill or about the same amount of downhill and uphill as you travel from sea level to sea level over the mountains, one over 7,000 feet tall! 🙂
And in Politics
Costa Rica recognized Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela.
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| Orange-bellied Trogon female Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Silver-throated Tanager Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Tropical Kingbird Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Broad-winged Hawk Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Yellowish Flycatcher Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Green-crowned Brilliant Hummingbird Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Bay-breasted Warbler juvenile female Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
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| Rufous-collared Sparrow Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve Near San Ramon, Costa Rica |
And of course as on all bird walks, we saw many more than I photographed. Some are too small or too far away or I try and don’t get a usable photo. The last 2 photos were actually shot on my first afternoon here while exploring, but we did see both of them on the morning bird walk. The three new birds for me are the Silver-throated Tanager, Bay-breasted Warbler and Broad-winged Hawk. Plus the photo of the Orange-bellied Trogon female is my new best photo of that species. Every trip has its rewards even beyond new birds and this one is no exception! Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort & Nature Reserve
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| Unknown Bird Nest with eggs El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Costa Rica |
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| Tropical Kingbird nesting in air-plant on tree Selva Negra Mountain Resort, Nicaragua |
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| Tropical Kingbird Male Standing guard by the nest Selva Negra Mountain Resort, Nicaragua |
AND THE THIRD BIRD NEST is in the above post on Montezuma Oropendola, most unusual!
Myths About Nesting Birds on Cornell’s “All About Birds” site
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| Chestnut-headed Oropendola The other day I mistakenly called it a “Crested Oropendola,” which does not appear in this part of Costa Rica, only a few near Panama border in SW I’ve not seen this in Atenas, only the Montezuma Oropendola, a favorite! This one photographed at Rancho Naturalista, Tuis, Costa Rica |
The following photos were made at CATIE campus near Turrialba, an agronomic program for research and education for all of Latin America farmers, headquartered in Costa Rica with a campus Trip Advisor reviews if planning to go. Cost is now $10 per visitor. It helped to have a good birding guide because he sees things I often miss! There were a lot of small forest birds I could not photograph because of light, distance and small size of birds. But some of the ones I got below are “first-timers” for me and that is good as my bird collection grows.
here and one in San Jose. My guide at Rancho Naturalista, Harry, took 3 of us here for the morning of the 7th of Dec. It is a good birding place with a big pond or small lake and a Botanical Gardens with tropical plants from all over Latin America. This terrain is different than the lodge and has lots of possibilities. See the
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| Tropical Kingbird Too big for gray-capped or boat-bill flycatchers I believe. All three are colored the same and sometimes difficult to ID. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Northern Jacana, second in number only to egrets at the pond. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| White-ringed Flycatcher, my first photo Like the Social Flycatcher except white on head makes a circle (ring) CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Prothonotary Warbler, my first photo. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Keel-billed Toucan, always from a distance, Not easy for me to photograph. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Chestnut-sided Warbler, which I photographed again at lodge better This trip is my first time to photo this bird and twice at that! 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Chestnut-backed Antbird, not great photo but my first! CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Common Tody-flycatcher, another 1st photo – A good day! 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Muscovy Duck, who we later observed mating 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Great-tailed Grackle, female, common all over Costa Rica CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Baby Great Egrets, as this pond is a rookery for the Great Egret Though fluffy & black-billed like Snowy Egret, they are not! Note Mom’s black foot to left of baby head. Snowy’s have yellow feet. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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| Hoffman’s Woodpecker CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. ~Joseph Addison, The Spectator, 1712