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.
They mainly feed at mid-upper levels in trees eating fruit. A rather plain but distinctive appearance, with beady dark eye and fairly stout bill.
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.
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.
They are often found singly or in pairs inside forest, usually below canopy as was the case with this one.
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.
They are found singly or in pairs along rivers or swamps, usually standing quietly along the shore. Listen for long whistles at dawn and dusk. It was a dark drizzly day when we were observing this Sunbittern, but still a cool bird to see.
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.
They are about half of the size of Green Kingfisher, and easily distinguished by rusty underparts and poorly contrasting pale neck collar.
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.
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.
The wholly cinnamon-colored underparts are distinctive along with a bright red bill.
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.
Suddenly, our driver Ricardo, also a great birder and asset to the team, spotted a Red-breasted Meadowlark off in a field. He had nowhere to pull over so just stopped on the highway. About eight of us jumped off the bus and moved to the edge of the field. Slowly moving closer and closer, keeping our eyes on the bird. Shooting all the way. When we turned around after the bird eventually flushed, we realized traffic was backed up way down the highway on our side of the road. I mean way backed up. Nobody was honking or yelling. People were actually giving us thumbs up signals. Crazy, can’t image that here in North America.
eBird says that the Red-breasted Meadowlark is found in open fields and often perches conspicuously atop grasses or small bushes. Seems accurate.
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.
One of the many hummingbirds we observed, the Brown Violetear, with its drab colours, was a rather cool bird to observe and photograph.
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.
Their bright yellow wings are striking in flight and fly with stiff wingbeats and glides, the long feet trailing out behind.
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.
They dig their nest in large arboreal wasp nests. Used to be known as Violaceous Trogon. Cornell All About Birds
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.
So, I studied eBird to come up with possible birds we could see at the main birding sites. And I had already been to Costa Rica and kept pretty decent lists of birds I had already observed in the country, plus I had already downloaded the Costa Rica bird pack from Merlin for previous trips, which kept track of my previous sightings of lifers. Although I had previously marked off birds it my trusty old field guide, I soon found out it was impossible to keep up and that everything was done on the merlin app on your phone. Even ordering lunches ahead of time so that time wasn’t wasted at lunch spots.
So, I went through the checklist, marking previous lifers with the blue dots. Then with the guides doing the checklist each and every night it was easy to mark off species seen and which ones were new lifers. Species in blue, Lifers in orange.
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.
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.
Tityras nest in tree cavities that they sometimes steal from woodpeckers.
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
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.
This species has only limited red on its mostly yellow bill, but this feature, along with its low-pitched song and dark tail, is useful in distinguishing it from similar pigeons across its range.
We seem to encounter Red-billed Pigeons everywhere we went.
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.
