Another competitor for my little Rufous-tailed Hummingbird who thinks he owns my garden is this Blue-vented Hummingbird, Saucerottia hoffmanni(my gallery link) and I haven’t seen him try to stop this larger deep-blue tailed hummingbird who has also been around my gardens since my first year here. You can read about him on eBird. A tropical bird found only in Costa Rica & Nicaragua with maybe a few strays into Honduras & El Salvador. 🙂 Or see more than 400 observations in Costa Rica on iNaturalist CR.
Here’s two shots recently on my Porterweed flowers. And yes, it is still windy, but these hummers have to eat every few minutes, regardless of the weather! And we all hope for the rains to start any day now and maybe then the winds will disappear! 🙂
Or it seems that I will do anything for one! 🙂 That is why I like going to the nature lodges where you can get closer to such colorful birds. Well, here are my step by step procedures for one of those many that come near my house (plus waiting for a blue sky!) 🙂 . . .
I never claim to be an authority on anything in nature, but my deductions of this photo on K’s fence the other day lead me to believe that it is a Juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. The three Saltators are the only birds this size with a “seedeater bill” (short/stubby fat) that also have the white eyebrow and little white line under the eye. Thus my deduction that it is a Saltator and because just 8 days ago I shared a photo of an adult Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (most common saltator here), I believe this one may be the offspring of that adult.
The Merlin AI identifier (eBird) is very good, but not on juveniles like this, and it just said it was “unable to identify” and the iNaturalist AI (also very good) said “not confident to identify” but then went on to give it’s first choice of “possible” species as a double-collared seedeater (Sporophila caerulescens) and that was also the first choice of Google Lens, but that species is South American and never sighted in Costa Rica, plus it does not have a white eyebrow and in my opinion not a good option! 🙂
I did find some juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltators online similar to this, and yes, many are darker or grayer than this one, but a few similar. Whew! Identification can be a lot of work! 🙂 So here it is, whatever it is . . .
I think it is a JUVENILE CINNAMON-BELLIED SALTATOR, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
See all of my photos of this species in Cinnamon-bellied Saltator Gallery which, by the way, was formerly called the “Grayish Saltator.”
When K had his gardener plant a Zinnia bed on the hillside just above my roof, I got my gardener to add a bench for viewing the many butterflies there. Now with the high winds continuing and me seeing very view birds from house-level, I have been trying the hillside bench and that is where I got the Gray Hawk and all of the last few days’ birds. I even got a Red-lored Parrot one day! But because he was near the top of the far hill, not a very good photo. I may or may not share it later. 🙂
Here is a gallery with three views from the bench that you email receivers may need to go online to properly see the left-to-right sequence (click post title above to go online). The email version does funny things with the photos sometimes. 🙂
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE and then click through a manual slideshow . . .
Front-Left to trees around my house.Straight ahead above George’s roof to one hill + his trees.Front-Right to far hill and my landlord’s close slope & fence.
More bird photos coming from this new birding spot! 🙂 So far I’ve shared these: a Gray Hawk, a Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, a Stripe-headed Sparrow, a Great Kiskadee and tomorrow a Streaked Flycatcher and maybe later the Red-lored Parrot (grainy photo). A lot more variety than what I was seeing from my terrace rocking chair! 🙂 And though a little earlier, this was the spot from where I got that cool photo of two Keel-billed Toucans perched with a Chachalaca on the hill behind George’s house! 🙂 Right now I’m not scheduled to travel until the first week of July, so this is my nature photography mirador! And who knows, before long, eBird just might list it as one of the “Birding Hot Spots” in Costa Rica! 🙂
Though it is still too windy for many birds, they have to eat and late afternoon is their last chance of the day. Two of these Stripe-headed Sparrows – Peucaea ruficauda (eBird link) were moving from a tree to the fence and to the ground, looking for possibly seeds or insects or worms. It is another purely Central American bird found from Costa Rica to Mexico. See more of my photos of this bird in my Stripe-headed Sparrow GALLERY. You will note there that I’ve seen this sparrow only one other time here in Atenas (2020) and once in Guanacaste at Rincon de la Vieja (2019). Thus not one of my regulars! 🙂 And for you birders here in Costa Rica, yes, he is very similar to the Black-striped Sparrow seen on both slopes of Costa Rica (while this one is only on the Pacific Slope), BUT with multiple obvious physical & color differences, making both easy to ID. 🙂
Stripe-headed Sparrow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaStripe-headed Sparrow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
His size, that yellow patch on the top of his head and the rust-colored wings are three things to assure you that he is a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus and not a Social Flycatcher, Boat-billed or one of the other similar flycatchers. He is one of the more common birds all over Costa Rica, almost as much as the Clay-colored Thrush and known for singing his name: “kis-ka-dee.” You can read about him on eBird or see some of my many photos in myGreat Kiskadee Gallery. Here’s two shots from my garden the other day . . .
This Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis (eBird link) was for years called the “Grayish Saltator” but was one of many birds that have had their names changed during my ten years of birding here in Costa Rica, which is sometimes confusing, but it keeps you on your toes! 🙂 It is strictly a “Central American + Mexico bird” (Mexico is “officially” part of North America). According to eBird I have now observed 14 of this species in Costa Rica which you can see in my GALLERY: Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. I got this shot in the shadows (hindering photo quality) during my “sitting bird expedition” the other evening in my yard. He is semi-common here, plus I’ve observed him in four other locations around Costa Rica. The cinnamon belly is seldom seen (like in only one shot in my gallery). 🙂
Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
On what I call the back side of my little house, I sat in a chair Wednesday evening for 20 or 30 minutes, scanning the hill behind my house and photographed several birds with this Gray Hawk, Buteo plagiatus (eBird link) being my prize of that birding sit! 🙂 And see the other Gray Hawks I’ve photographed here in my Gray Hawk Gallery. This hawk is found from Costa Rica north through Mexico to the Southwestern U.S. along the Mexican border, mostly a Central American bird.
is the Costa Rican Spanish name for the English-named Clay-colored Thrush. (my gallery link) This is the bird that gently wakes me up each morning singing, and, as tradition has it, he/she is singing in the rains for the beginning of our winter or rainy season in May.
Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
