Category: Birds

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Berries for lunch?

Many of the rainforest birds find berries to be a major type of food for their sustenance, like this female Orange-collared Manakin (eBird Link) which is indigenous to the Pacific Slopes of Costa Rica and Panama. Only the male has the orange collar and I had not seen him here when I wrote this post yesterday. But you can see my other photos in my Orange-collared Manakin GALLERY which includes one male I found at Carara NP in his manakin “Lek” where he dances to attract a female. I love to try and capture a photo of a bird with a berry in his/her mouth like this! 🙂

Orange-collared Manakin female, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica

FYI: This is the morning (July 6) that I leave Esquinas Rainforest Lodge (their site link) and head back home to my simple garden and fewer wildlife in Atenas, though I will continue sharing photos from this rainforest for the next week or two. 🙂 No other guest wanted to do the mangrove boat tour, which requires at least two participants, so I did not get to do that this time. But there will be more mangroves to visit! 🙂 And this was a very relaxing week with a lot of birds and butterflies plus a visit to the La Gamba Rainforest Research Station which I will share about later.

¡Pura Vida!

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Crested Guan

The Crested Guan (eBird link) is a fairly common large tropical bird in Central and northern South America, that flies more than the Curassow, that I shared earlier, who mostly stays on the ground and seems to be less able to fly while this guan soars high in the sky. See more of my shots of this bird in my Crested Guan GALLERY. It is fun to be in tropical forests like this and see so many colorful and interesting birds and other animals and plants! Here he joined me for breakfast, eating his palm berry. 🙂

Crested Guan eating a palm berry for breakfast, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.
Crested Guan, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Gray-cowled Wood-Rail

Another common and fairly large bird here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge is the Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Rascón Cuelligris, Aramides cajaneus (eBird link) is a wetlands & marsh bird found throughout Central & South America. There are many here at Esquinas around the several ponds or lagoons and I’ve seen in the lowlands of both the Pacific and Caribbean slope and coastal areas of Costa Rica. See my Gray-cowled Wood-Rail GALLERY for more pix. Here’s three shots at Esquinas . . .

Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.
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Great Curassow

The Great Curassow, Crax Rubra (eBird link) was the first bird to greet me here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. It is a large “turkey-like” game bird found throughout Central America that was hunted to near extinction and today is seen only in reserves and national parks where they are protected. Here’s four of my photos from here, two each of the male and female.

There was surprisingly no rain my arrival afternoon yesterday (Saturday) but I did not get to a blog post because they have internet connection only in the restaurant and reception areas, not in the cabins. This afternoon (Sunday) it started raining about 12:30 and looks like an off & on rain will continue, but this morning was clear for my birding hike. 🙂

Great Curassow Male, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica
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“The Wind in the Trees”

“Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn’t already been said better by the wind in the trees.”

~Thomas Merton

With that, I renew an old adventure that will certainly become an even grander new adventure . . .

Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito

It was in October of 2018, the peak of the rainy season, that I first visited Esquinas Rainforest Lodge at La Gamba Research Station, Piedras Blancas National Park, north of Golfito, Puntarenas. It rained pretty hard every afternoon with the mornings and short spaces between rain full of wonderful birds to photograph! And the planned boat trip to Rio Coto Mangroves turned impossible with high winds and heavy rain on Golfo Dulce, but the ingenious boat captain took me back into the smaller Gulf of Golfito (shielded from heavy wind by trees) for some of my better bird shots in between downpours – an unplanned but excellent substitute for an always good mangrove tour! Making Lemonade from Lemons! 🙂 And how could you not in this incredible rainforest? See more photos from my first trip there & a video link below . . .

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Still the most-seen bird . . .

. . . in my garden, the Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush (eBird link) who is no longer singing his longing melody that tradition says is him calling in the rain for rainy season to begin. It began with June and we’ve had rain every afternoon since! So I think he is a happy bird! 🙂 But overall, this june I’m seeing fewer varieties of both birds and butterflies than usual. I’m hoping that won’t be true of the rainforest I visit next week! 🙂

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See also my Yigüirro/Clay-colored Thrush Gallery.

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Late-blooming Nance Tree

Or was the other one an “early bloomer?” 🙂 Both the Nance Tree and the Maraca Flowers on the front slope of my house have finished blooming while the ones back of my house (up hill) are just now blooming. Maybe the difference is morning sun (back) and afternoon sun (front) or I’m just fortunate to have them blooming at different times of the year! 🙂

A Guatemala website tells Mayan stories of this tree that they question, while a produce website tells about the uses of the berries and the Wikipedia site has a great general summary about the tree and its fruits and uses. I tried to eat a raw berry once and did not care for it. All 3 of my trees are harvested by birds only and at two different times of the year!

Nance Tree Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica

You can see a few green berries in the upper right corner of the next photo which will turn yellow when ripe . . .

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5 Birds in the Canopy

With rain finally coming every afternoon, I’m also seeing a few more birds other than the Yigüirro (Clay-colored Thrush) singing his heart out to beg for rain says the tradition. Well, he finally succeeded, and though 5 species in one morning walk is an improvement, it is still not a lot of different birds compared to my past experience here. All were in the shadows of the canopy leaves of different trees with only this Yigüirro having direct light, but here’s the five birds I saw the other morning even if not good photos . . .

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Costa Rica
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