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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.
¡Pura Vida!
Another “uncommon” bird found only in Central America from Eastern Mexico to Western Costa Rica, the Canivet’s Emerald, Cynanthus canivetii (eBird link) with some of my other earlier garden shots in my Canivet’s Emerald Gallery. I mostly get females (white chest) while in my first year I had a male (green chest). And for my Costa Rica readers, this species appears only on the Pacific Slope, while in Mexico to Honduras it is only on the Caribbean Slope. 🙂 Here’s three shots from yesterday in my garden . . .
A small group of young Gray-headed Chachalacas, Ortalis cinereiceps (linked to eBird) landed in my trees yesterday and did a lot of chattering before flying on elsewhere. The wind doesn’t seem to bother larger birds as much as the smaller ones. And this bird lives only between Guatemala and Columbia! Here’s 3 different views . . .
This is the one bird that never was scared off by the winds (which are still blowing but decreasing). He kept feeding on the flowers and the feeders and allowed other Rufous-tailed to join him, but not other birds. “King of the Garden!” Here he is in one of the trees.
See more in my gallery: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl.
¡Pura Vida!
. . . as the birds seem to be making their return (though still windy some). And the National Bird, the Yigüirro, is singing his heart out as if it were April and the rains about to start. Some say that means the rainy season will begin earlier in April or maybe in March? Not normal, but then nothing about the weather has been normal this year. This shot was of a solo Gray-headed Chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps (my gallery link) in my Cecropia Tree. They are often in flocks, but none yet in my garden.
¡Pura Vida!
This Clay-colored Thrush, Turdus grayi (my gallery link) is the National Bird of Costa Rica and widely believed since pre-Columbian days to be the bird who sings in the rains in April & May. One neighbor says they are already singing in his yard, though I haven’t heard them in mine yet. Yesterday morning it was the White-winged Dove out-singing all of the other birds in my garden. 🙂 And I have no idea what that means! 🙂
And interestingly, at night I’ve had both the Common Pauraque and the Tropical Screech Owl singing me to sleep! (Merlin sound ID) 🙂 But no photos of either in my trees at night. The linked photo of a Pauraque was at Maquenque Ecolodge where I’ve seen more species than any other place, and it was a daytime shot! 🙂 Here’s four shots of the Yigüirro in my garden the other day . . .
The high winds this time of year seem to keep away both birds and butterflies from my efforts to photograph, except for one bird! And in my neighborhood he seems to never stop soaring, The Turkey Vulture! Cathartes aura (linked to my gallery). I don’t get to regularly see an Eagle or Hawk soaring, but this vulture I can see almost every day as he makes riding the wind drafts look easy and motivates me to want to soar! 🙂
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.” ~Helen Keller
And may you soar today in whatever you do! Windy or not! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Red-tailed Hawk? Maybe, even though this 1 by 2 1/2 inch feather on my terrace was a little small, big birds do have some small feathers. And it appears to maybe be too big for a Rufous-backed Wren (common in my garden) and not dark enough for the Oropendola’s rust color and there are no Wood Rails near me! So I’m thinking it is most likely a small feather from a Red-tailed Hawk that blew in from a nesting place nearby or blew off when flying over. 🙂 Make your own guess! 🙂
And my only photo of a Red-tailed Hawk here is of one in captivity, but this feather does look like it’s possible to have come from him. 🙂 And the more I look at the Rufous-backed Wrens, the less likely it seems to be his, but check out my many photos of him to see what you think.
¡Pura Vida!
Thursday I went for an appointment to a new private Dermatologist for me, one recommended by my public ENT Oncologist, expecting to just talk and set up treatments later. But WOW! And in just 2 hours I had surgery on a large facial growth and “Plasma Treatment” (explained tomorrow) on a field of little pre-cancer growths across my forehead. In at 9 and out by 11! I was amazed! Read about it tomorrow. 🙂
This Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus (linked to eBird) is perched proudly on the powerline cable in front of my house like so many do. He is common in both South America and Central America and one of the many little joys of living in Costa Rica! 🙂 See more of my photos in the gallery titled Tropical Kingbird — Tirano Tropical with that second name being the Spanish name for this bird along with the unofficial local common name of “Pecho amarillo.” 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
UPDATED Monday, 8:33am after reading similar, more detailed article in the Washington Post:
Another one of your deportee planes just landed in Costa Rica’s San Jose Airport with 135 Refugees (Tico Times link) after a 4 hour flight from California, they faced an 8 hour bus ride to a migrant camp near the Panama border (Darien Gap). That included 65 minors and several senior adults & 2 pregnant women. All will be cared for lovingly by the Costa Rica people and helped to get to either their birth country or, because many can’t go back, will be helped to residency in another accepting country like Costa Rica. The refugees are from all over the world including Asia who are being sent here and to Panama, two countries who agreed to be intermediary locations for persons forced out of the U.S. The same day these 135 came here, 300 arrived in Panama. The richest country in the world kicks out people it doesn’t want and lets other, poorer countries like Costa Rica & Panama take care of them. Hmmmmmmm. While at the same time talking about taking over the Panama Canal. You guys really chose Trump as your president?
I guess those Republican Evangelicals have forgotten what the Bible says about accepting refugees and migrants. So sad! And it is also sad to watch from a distance as Trump (“Perched like a king!”) and his evil cohorts (the Republican Party & Rich People) destroy my birth country. But I guess we will all eventually get used to China & Russia as the new world leaders.
🙁
Possibly a migrant, this Baltimore Oriole, Icterus galbula (linked to eBird) was in and out of several trees in my garden Sunday. We do have some resident Baltimore Orioles here, just like some of us humans from up north! 🙂 But this time of year they are likely to be migrants. And I’m still amazed at how far birds fly!
See also my Baltimore Oriole Gallery for more photos of this northerner made in many places all over Costa Rica! And you might also be interested in some of his relatives who are also down here . . .
¡Pura Vida!