This is becoming my new favorite bird in my garden, mainly because of that deep blue tail! See more of my photos in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird.
¡Pura Vida!
Blue-vented Hummingbird
Xandari ’26 GALLERY Ready
And if after a few seconds, that click doesn’t work, then just go to this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-06-8-10-Xandari-Nature-Resort-Alajuela
Visiting places like this here in Costa Rica and making photos is my greatest joy! I hope you enjoy some of the photos! And I may still share a few more on the blog, but they are starting to happen now where I live! And in 2 1/2 weeks I will be at Maquenque Eco Lodge, one of my other favorite places from which to share my love of nature! And there I will celebrate my 86th birthday! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Yigüirro
The Clay-colored Thrush (my gallery link) is called a Yigüirro in Costa Rica and is the National Bird, yet such a simple, Robin-sized brown bird. Not only does his singing in April attract the rain (and me), but his simple, plain look is also appealing. Another favorite bird seen at Xandari this week.
¡Pura Vida!
The Charlie Doggett Photo Library
Xandari has more of my photo books in their lobby than maybe any other hotel/lodge in Costa Rica. And they were on a bookshelf in a back corner of the lobby for quite a while, but when that corner was made into an office, they moved my books to just inside the front door, nicely displayed on top of a miniature oxcart, one of the historical symbols of Costa Rica. And my friends in Reception tell me that a lot more people are using the books now! 🙂
All of the lodges that I regularly visit have some of my books in their lobbies and I know that people use them as I have received letters of thanks from tourists by way of my website Contact Page. 🙂 It is kind of fun to gift people I don’t know from around the world with a tiny expression of my Costa Rica Pura Vida in my nature photos here! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Lesson’s Motmot
One of my favorite Costa Rica Birds, the Lessson’s Motmot (my gallery link), previously called “Blue-crowned Motmot,” is usually one of the first birds I see at Xandari and that was the case this morning on my circle walk through the gardens just after seeing two toucans fly over (no photo). I saw several other small birds in the shrubs without good photos, including a White-eared Ground-Sparrow and the National Bird, Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush. The pre-breakfast walk is always the best time for birds, but with overcast skies and the threat of rain, there were not as many today. And that is usually too early for butterflies that seek the sun, but I did get one which I will share in a separate post later today.
Here’s photos of the two Motmots, male & female, with couples like this usually seen together . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Two Nights at Xandari
This little visit to a favorite nature place nearby was scheduled for May 25 and had to be postponed at the last minute because of a sick stomach. I re-introduced Xandari in that May 25 blog post Two Nights at Xandari (linked) within which are links to my 7 other trips there including for one birthday and one Christmas celebration. It is my 3rd best butterfly location (for the number of species) after my Garden and Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur.
In that post I did not link the hotel’s website because they emphasize things like their Spa and pools rather than nature, but if curious, here is the link: https://www.xandari.com/Resort-Spa-costarica-overview.php
It was started and first operated by a Frank Lloyd Wright Style Architect and his Art Teacher wife who continued to teach in a special artist pavilion there. The contemporary rooms are decorated with art and sculptures from her and her students as are the gardens with sculptures. A large forest on a mountain north of the city of Alajuela (my provincial capital) with two major waterfalls, a farm, garden and forest trails and of course their Spa and a great restaurant! In their lobby is the only public library of Charlie Doggett photo books! 🙂 They are one of several nature-centered tourist locations in Costa Rica that I have bonded with and I’m always welcomed as a VIP guest with chocolate-covered strawberries and a room upgrade if I want it. Though their “small” rooms are much larger than most other hotel rooms and I’m sure some people retreat there just for their great rooms not to mention 3 pools or the trails for me! 🙂 Whoever bought it from them made it a part of the Xandari chain of exotic hotels out of India. Thus lots of international visitors here! 🙂
Like with most trips, I will probably do posts at night for the next two or three nights, then get back to my usual morning posts. Being able to visit special nature places like this is just one part of my Pura Vida retirement experience in Costa Rica and this is my first overnight trip this year! With 3 more planned for the rest of this year, to 3 of my other favorite places here! So it will be a very good year as I turn 86 next month at Maquenque Eco Lodge! 🙂 Stay tuned for more nature adventures!
¡Pura Vida!
Blue-vented Hummingbird
This is my other “non-Rufous-tailed” hummingbird from the one shared yesterday and actually the first species of hummingbird that I photographed just 3 days after moving into this house back in 2015. (Bad photo but good memory!) 🙂 As today’s featured photo shows, it has a rich, deep blue tail that helps it to stand out among other birds. See more of my photos of this special hummingbird in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird. And almost all have been photographed in my garden, though maybe my favorite of this species was photographed at Xandari in 2018! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
14,000 Views!
That is how many views my blog & website got during the month of May according to the Jetpack program on my site. That is a lot! THANK YOU for reading my blog/website and the related and linked Gallery! It makes my retirement activities seem more important to have that many people looking at my photos! 🙂
Canivet’s Emerald & Porterweed
This Canivet’s Emerald (my gallery link) is one of the 3 hummingbirds in my garden, with Blue-vented being the other one secondary to the Rufous-tailed who thinks he owns the garden and when I fill the feeders, hogs them and chases off other hummingbirds (the Canivet’s & Blue-vented), but these other two have easier access to my large number of Porter Weeds, officially called Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Wikipedia link). They are in the verbena family and are the most popular flower here for both hummingbirds and butterflies. And they are not all blue! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Two Nights at Xandari
Starting today, I will spend a couple of days at Xandari Nature Resort on the outskirts of the city of Alajuela, our provincial capital. It is not exactly cheap, so two nights is enough for one of my top 3 or 4 butterfly locations while I hope they have less wind there than we do in Atenas, less than an hour away. We will see! Oops! I just had to cancel because of a sick stomach and asked if they could move my special price to another date. Hope so! Though not suppose to make changes on pre-paid specials. 🙂 Well, they did make the change to June 8-10, same reservation, just two week later and hopefully with a healthier old man! They told me that I was a special guest and they were happy to postpone the reservation. 🙂
Here’s links to the “trip galleries” of my earlier visits to Xandari, in a resort chain with headquarters in India, adding to the exotic nature of the place with waterfalls, forest trails, birds & butterflies and some of the best flower gardens in the country, plus a small farm for their restaurant. A cool place on a hilltop overlooking downtown Alajuela and the San Jose Airport from a lush tropical forest.
- 2026 June (gallery coming soon)
- 2024 December
- 2024 June
- 2023, January
- 2022 August
- 2020 August
- 2019-July
- 2018-July
¡Pura Vida!
I’ll start posting photo reports tonight, Now that will be the night of June 8! 🙂
Great Kiskadee
One of the more common birds seen in my garden has always been the Great Kiskadee (linked to my gallery) and here are 2 shots of this tropical bird common all over Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!