They are common and active; usually found in pairs or small flocks, sometimes with larger mixed feeding flocks and tend to be found in more open areas such as forest edges or gardens feeding on fruit. Cornell All About Birds
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Silver-throated Tanager
The Silver-throated Tanager is a small tanager, overall lemon-yellow but not super bright that usually looks a bit dirty. They have a distinctive silvery throat and green edges on wing feathers and black streaks on back.
Monday, July 7, 2025
Bay-headed Tanager
The Bay-headed Tanager is a stunning tanager that is mostly green with reddish head. Some populations have electric blue underparts, others entirely green.
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Golden-hooded Tanager
The Golden-hooded Tanager is a very attractive small tanager of humid tropical lowlands that is found in humid evergreen forest edges, plantations, and gardens. At times with mixed-species feeding flocks of honeycreepers and euphonias as was the case when we observed this tanager.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Scarlet-rumped Tanager
The Scarlet-rumped Tanager is fairly common in humid tropical lowlands. They favour evergreen forest edges, plantations, and verdant second growth, such as areas along roadsides. They forage mainly at low to middle levels often in fairly noisy small groups.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Crimson Collared Tanager
The Crimson Collared Tanager is a beautiful tanager of humid tropical lowlands that favours evergreen forest edge and verdant second growth.
They forage unobtrusively at all levels in trees and bushes, usually in pairs. The sexes are alike and are velvety black overall with a bright bluish-white bill and a glossy crimson collar and rump. Cornell All About Birds
They forage unobtrusively at all levels in trees and bushes, usually in pairs. The sexes are alike and are velvety black overall with a bright bluish-white bill and a glossy crimson collar and rump. Cornell All About Birds
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Green-crowned Brilliant
The Green-crowned Brilliant is a fairly large hummingbird, sleek and long-tailed with straight bill. The male is entirely emerald green with small blue throat patch only visible at some angles as seen here.
The female has spotted green breast with a conspicuous white mustache stripe and white spot behind eye as seen here.
The female has spotted green breast with a conspicuous white mustache stripe and white spot behind eye as seen here.
The juvenile has pale rufous malars and chin as seen below.
Friday, June 27, 2025
Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush
The Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush is a small skulking thrush, far more often heard than seen. It was raining pretty good when we observed this thrush in the understory. They are all sooty gray, darkest on forehead, with whiter belly.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
White-eared Ground-sparrow
The White-eared Ground-sparrow is a strikingly patterned large sparrow that favours tropical and subtropical forests, shade-coffee plantations, and brushy edges.
Monday, June 23, 2025
Green-fronted Lancebill
The Green-fronted Lancebill has a super long straight bill. They are dull greenish overall with iridescent green forehead and bronzy nape.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Green Thorntail
The Green Thorntail is a tiny hummingbird with a short straight bill. The male is all shimmering green with distinctive, long, pointed tail feathers while the female has a short tail and a distinctive white mustache.
It took quite awhile but I was pretty happy capturing this image of a Green Thorntail one of my favourite hummers that we observed.
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Green Hermit
The Green Hermit is a large hummingbird with long white-tipped central tail feathers. The male is entirely blue-green while the female has a gray belly, green back, and obvious stripes on face.
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Hoffman's Woodpecker
The Hoffman’s Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker with bold black-and-white barring on back and a cream-colored belly. A patch of yellow on the lower belly can be difficult to see.
Common in open woodlands, second growth, and gardens. Distinctive in range, but hybridizes extensively with Red-crowned Woodpecker on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica.
Common in open woodlands, second growth, and gardens. Distinctive in range, but hybridizes extensively with Red-crowned Woodpecker on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica.
Sunday, June 15, 2025
Band-tailed Barbthroat
The Band-tailed Barbthroat is a scarce hummingbird of humid evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands. Favors shady understory, especially with Heliconia flowers. Usually visits flowers briefly and whips away with a sharp buzzy squeak.
Friday, June 13, 2025
Semi Plumbeous Hawk
The Semi Plumbeous Hawk is a small forest hawk, usually seen perched inconspicuously in the canopy or at the forest edge like we observed here. White below and gray above with distinctive orange-red legs and bill.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Summer Tanager
The Summer Tanager, a bird we observed almost every day in Costa Rica, is the only completely red bird in North America. The strawberry-colored male Summer Tanager is an eye-catching sight against the green leaves of the forest canopy. The mustard-yellow female is harder to spot, though both sexes have a very distinctive chuckling call note.
Monday, June 9, 2025
Crowned Woodnymph
The Crowned Woodnymph favours evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands, often near streams. They feed mainly at low to middle levels in shady understory, but comes to feeders at edges and in clearings.
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Crested Guan
The Crested Guan is a very large, long-tailed game bird of tropical and subtropical forest. Often seen high in trees or flying through the forest canopy; usually not seen in areas near people except in some protected areas due to hunting pressure.
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Violet Sabrewing
The Violet Sabrewing is a very large, spectacular, and aggressive hummingbird of humid evergreen forest in highlands and foothills, descending locally and seasonally to lowlands.
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Chestnut-headed Oropendola
Montezuma Oropendola was by far the more common of the Oropendola that we observed however we were able to also see the Chestnut-Headed Oropendola. The Chestnut-headed Oropendola is a rather large, dark, yellow-tailed bird of humid evergreen forest and edge in tropical lowlands. Where present, colonies of large pendulous nests adorn tall trees.
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Keel-billed Toucan
The Keel-billed Toucan is a large unmistakable toucan with a huge, rainbow-colored bill. It is often seen in pairs, but not usually in groups.
Friday, May 30, 2025
Blue-gray Tanager
The Blue-gray Tanager is a common and widespread powder blue-gray bird of open and semi-open areas with larger trees and hedges, towns, villages, and gardens in tropical and subtropical regions.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Buff-throated Saltator
The Buff-throated Saltator is a fairly common bird found in humid tropical lowlands. They favour forest edges, plantations, and dense second growth and are usually seen singly or in pairs, foraging quietly in flowering or fruiting trees.
Monday, May 26, 2025
Rufous Motmot
The Rufous Motmot is a large forest-dweller that likes to sit motionless. The head and breast are rufous-orange with a black mask and breast spot. They have a green back and long tail.
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Sunbittern
Unfortunately, I was not able to capture an image of the Sunbittern with its wings spread since it is considered one of the most dazzling of all the world’s birds; the intricate yellow, red, and black pattern on the spread wings is truly otherworldly.
Thursday, May 22, 2025
American Pygmy Kingfisher
The American Pygmy Kingfisher is a tiny kingfisher of shady forest streams and mangroves. Often darts away when disturbed, but can be confiding if approached quietly and usually perches fairly low over the water as was the case here.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Mangrove Vireo
The Mangrove Vireo, despite the name, is not found in mangroves in most of its range. It is common in scrubby woodland, brushy fields, and thickets.
The best field marks are the white wingbars and the yellow patch between the eyes and bill. Most birds are pale yellowish below, a few are paler and grayer overall. Birds in mangroves of Central America are often rather colorless, with very reduced yellow tones.
Sunday, May 18, 2025
Cinnamon Hummingbird
The Cinnamon Hummingbird is a striking, medium-size hummingbird of dry tropical lowlands that favours scrubby woodland, gardens and semi-open areas with flowering trees.
Friday, May 16, 2025
Red-breasted Meadowlark
So, on my Costa Rica birding trip we lodged at three separate lodges spending three nights at each location. One day would be spent birding trails around that lodge however the other days would be spent birding around the area. Travel days were also spent birding backroads at different habitats usually with four or five different stops. On this particular day we were travelling on the busiest road, a two lane paved highway, travelling to Arenal Bird Observatory. One of the more popular areas of Costa Rica, at least for birding.
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Brown Violetear
The Brown Violetear is a rather large but drab, fairly short-billed hummingbird of tropical and subtropical forest and edge. Can be aggressive when defending flower patches from most other hummingbirds. Occurs mainly in foothills, ranging seasonally down to lowlands.
Monday, May 12, 2025
Northern Jacana
I was really excited to be able to photograph this Northern Jacana up close along the river bank. The Northern Jacana is a bird of freshwater marshes, lakes, and ponds in tropical lowlands, locally in highlands.
They walk with a high-stepping gait, often on top of floating vegetation. The adult is chestnut overall with black head and neck however the immature looks very different, with creamy-white face, neck, and underparts.
Saturday, May 10, 2025
Gartered Trogon
The Gartered Trogon is a relatively small and compact yellow-bellied trogon of tropical lowland forest, mainly in humid areas. Perches at mid to upper levels, often high in canopy.
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Costa Rica birding trip planning
So, many people ask me if I was overwhelmed birding, by observing 387 species in 12 days. Starting at five each morning and basically hitting the sack around eleven thirty, or sometimes later each day. And the answer is no. It is a terrific experience.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I only had three days to prepare for my trip. However, Eagle Eye Tours emailed me my checklist. A 17 page list of the 573 species we could possibly observe.
And now, it’s absolutely great to be able to see what birds we observed on each day, and match them up with my images. Providing an easy way to log image frame numbers with each bird. It’s also fun learning more about the different birds as I research them for the blog.
So, that’s it. Probably doesn’t seem all that cool to a non birder.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Black-crowned Tityra
The Black-crowned Tityra is a handsome, mostly silvery gray bird of tropical lowland forest and adjacent semi-open areas with taller trees. Usually found at mid-upper levels of fruiting trees.
The male is more silvery overall, with a black cap and the female has a brown face and smaller black cap.
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Common Pauraque
The Common Pauraque’s subtle brown, black, and gray plumage provides such excellent camouflage that it might as well be invisible in its daytime sleeping spots on open ground. From dusk till dawn, the male’s songs are anything but quiet, ranging from rising whistles to grunts that sound like frogs. It is skilled at catching flying insects and like all nightjars has a gaping wide mouth behind a tiny bill. Widespread in the Neotropics, the Common Pauraque ventures into the U.S. just at the southernmost tip of Texas.
In the evening, we observed Common Pauraque at almost every stop on our trip.
It was really cool to observe them hunting insects and returning to the same spot. This one was lit up by lights from an old tractor shed and I watched for quite awhile as it would fly upward and catch insects heading toward the lights.
As is true of nightjars around the world, the Common Pauraque is the subject of many folk beliefs, among them that the male’s song identifies the presence of “Don Pucuyo,” a roving, romantic spirit.
The Common Pauraque lays two attractive eggs, buffy or salmon-buff in color, marked with reddish brown, cinnamon, gray, and lavender—quite distinct from the eggs of any other nightjar species. Cornell All About Birds
Friday, May 2, 2025
Red-billed Pigeon
The Red-billed Pigeon is a widespread inhabitant of tropical deciduous forests from Costa Rica to the Rio Grande of southern Texas. This large pigeon spends most of its time high above the ground, plucking fruits and berries from the crowns of trees and shrubs.
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Pale-billed Woodpecker
The Pale-billed Woodpecker is a large red-headed woodpecker of tropical forest in lowlands and foothills. It also resides in the pine-oak forest of lower mountain slopes. All plumages of Pale-billed have a white V on the back as seen here. Their loud double-rap drum is very distinctive.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
White-whiskered Puffbird
The White-whiskered Puffbird is a plump brown bird of shady understories in humid evergreen forest of tropical lowlands. Found singly or in pairs, perched quietly at low to middle levels. I was extremely happy to get a decent image of this adorable little bird.
Often sits still for long periods and is easily overlooked. Note the stout bill, reddish eyes, streaky underparts, bushy white whiskers, and finely dappled whitish to buffy upperparts. Cornell All About Birds
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Double-striped Thick-knee
The Double-striped Thick-knee is a large shorebird of lowland dry grassland and savannas that is usually found in pairs or small groups. Usually active at night.
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