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Yesterday morning at the beginning of my last full day at Chachagua Rainforest we had a Yellow-throated Toucan (eBird link) juvenile join those of us who were early enough. The waiter was feeding him fresh papaya which he enjoyed, but after a while he seemed to gaze into the forest where his momma taught him to find food and he was back into his natural habitat. But a few of us enjoyed his brief visit with the humans! 🙂 4 photos . . .
I just decided to share the birds from Maquenque in smaller doses and this is the three kinds of toucans we had at breakfast every morning: (1) Keel-billed Toucan, (2) Yellow-throated Toucan, and (3) Collared Aracari Toucan. I have hundreds of photos but only sharing 2 of each type! 🙂 Though I should note that the featured photo for this post is of three juvenile Collared Aracari, possibly siblings. Lots of baby birds around now. Click an 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
Some trips I put more energy into getting many more bird photos, this year in South Caribe was more relaxed and slower, focusing a little more on culture and people, but here are my 10 birds and 1 nest photos representing 8 species with 3 having both male and female photos. My one “lifer” or first-time seen bird was the Gray-necked Wood-Rail.
Birds are still my first passion, but tomorrow I will share the “Other Animals” seen here this year including one of my better sloth photos shot near the hotel, as were most of the birds. I saw a few water birds from a distance but not as many as usually seen here. And I’m very pleased with my new Tamron 60mm lense which has really helped to zoom in on more birds!
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.
~Carly Simon
See my TRIP Photo Gallery: 2018 Caribe South, Puerto Viejo for many other kinds of photos from this fun trip and for more on the South Caribe see these other past trip galleries:
¡Pura Vida!
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| This is the only island in the Boca del Toro Archipelago to have the Snowy Cotinga. We searched for over an hour before we finally found one of these semi-rare birds. Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
For the birders among my readers, this is only my second time to see and photograph a Snowy Cotinga. The other time was Christmas before last at Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí.
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| And everyone likes to see a toucan! This is now called the Yellow-throated Toucan Popa is close enough to the mainland for toucans to fly to them. Our island, Barsimanto, is not, thus no toucans! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Being in the Atlantic Ocean with lots of islands and mainland nearby is pretty! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| And the houses and tourist cabins are interesting too! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
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| Squirrel Cuckoo Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Anhinga female Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Green Heron Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Amazon Kingfisher female Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Boat-billed Heron Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Laughing Falcon Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Red-winged Blackbird Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
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| Social Flycatcher building a nest Cañon Negro, Costa Rica |
And 9 more tomorrow night, then we start on Tenorio and more from the lodge. Tomorrow (Wed.) I ride the buses back to Atenas.
And my Birds photo gallery
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| Yellow-throated Toucan Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, La Virgen, Costa Rica Former known as Chestnut-Mandibled and then Black-Mandibled Toucan A very common bird in Sarapiquí area including at Selva Verde Lodge. |
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| Keel-billed Toucan Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| Collared Aracari Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| Keel-billed Toucan Flying Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| White-water rafters seen from the terrace of my cabin in cell phone. Selva Verde Lodge, Chilamate, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica on the Sarapiquí River |
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| Rafters zoomed-in and cropped from cell phone pix. Selva Verde Lodge, Chilamate, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica on the Sarapiquí River |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan cell phone shot cropped to 1/4 size to enlarge. Behind dining room, Selva Verde Lodge, Chilamate, Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. Good photos of this bird coming in next few days. Saw him everywhere! |
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| Lower Falls at La Paz Gardens Seen from highway enroute to and from Selva Verde Lodge Costa Rica this trip. You don’t see this on your paid visit inside the park! 🙂 |
I drove a rent car through the mountains above Alajuela to avoid going through the nerve-wracking traffic of San Jose, but not sure how much better with all the hairpin curves! It is a tiring drive of less than 60 miles that takes 3 hours. (Yep! I averaged 20 mph!) And rent cars with full insurance are expensive! So next trip will be on public transportation even though I am still not fluent in Spanish. With friendly Ticos I can struggle through the language with less stress than comes with driving through city traffic or mountain curves AND it will be a whole lot less expensive! And slower is part of the adventure. ¡Pura Vida! I was told at Selva Verde that the bus from San Jose was the equivalent of $4, but of course mine will be discounted with my senior adult card. 🙂
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| Snowy Cotinga (A first sighting for me) By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan (formerly Chestnut or Black-mandibled Toucan) By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Mantled Howler Monkey By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica And I haven’t mentioned that I hear them often in the forest here. |
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| Nature Guide Ronald at the front entrance to Selva Verde before we cross the road for birds in a botanical garden. |
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| More hummingbirds than I’ve seen almost anywhere else. Some eating out of that heliconia flower. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| There was a group of German photographers there with their big lenses. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Dave Senior putting out more fruit for the birds. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Christmas Tree Selva Verde Lodge Restaurant #1 Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Rain seen from Riverside Room 45, Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |