This is the most common or most frequently seen dove or pigeon in my garden. (The Inca Dove is the second most common in my garden.) To learn more about White-winged Doves, see The Cornell Lab “All About Birds” Article. Or White-winged Dove Gallery for more of my photos of this regular visitor to my garden. In this photo he is perched on the stump of a tree top where my Yellow Bell Tree was recently pruned so I can maintain my terrace vista.
The subtitle of my newest travel book is “When you look through the eyes of a child” describing how I tried to present this photo-travel book on Maquenque Eco-Lodge and Reserve. Yes – it is in Spanish this time but for you English-only people, don’t worry! All the photo captions are in both languages and the poem from which I got the subtitle is also in both languages, and here it is in English:
“Everything seemed possible, when I looked through the eyes of a child. And every once in a while; I remember, I still have the chance to be that wild.” ― Nikki Rowe
It’s a photo book with 141 photos, including photos of the 61 species of birds I got this visit. THE ELECTRONIC PREVIEW IS FREE, so go to this link or click the cover image below and you can see all 92 pages of the book for free! Of course full-screen is best for photos! 🙂
My hour and twenty minutes walk up the hill and back this morning provided many creativity opportunities as always! I almost overloaded this post with 4 categories of photos but will save the others for the next 3 days: butterflies, flowers and vistas. Today please enjoy the 8 birds I photographed. CLICK image to enlarge. Pura vida!
My last bird post from Maquenque is two of the largest and most frequently seen groups of birds – Flycatchers and the more colorful Tanagers. Enjoy! And to see all of the bird species I saw on this trip to Maquenque, go to theMaquenque 2020 BIRDS Gallery or better yet, see all my June-July 2020 Maquenque Photos! 🙂
I got all three of the Saltators found in this part of the country with only one other species (Streaked Saltator) found only in the southwest corner of Costa Rica around the Osa Peninsula and the only one I’ve not photographed.
Plus I got 4 of the many types of “blackbirds” here. And if you didn’t see the post about a Oropendola mother raising a blackbird, you might want to read A BLM Example in Nature. CLICK image to enlarge.
“Big” is somewhat relative, but just another way to group my bird photos from a week at Maquenque Eco-Lodge and Reserve. I used two photos of the common Turkey Vulture to show the easiest way to tell the difference in him and the Black Vulture – the white on the underside of the Turkey Vulture goes all the way across and the white on bottom of Black Vulture is only on the tips of the wings. The Red and Gray Heads are another way, but not always clearly visible and as seen here the red is not always very obvious.
And the Featured Image is a Laughing Falcon, one of my favorite big bird, just hard to get close to for a great photo, but I have a few times as you can see in my CR Birds Gallery.
There are two species of Oropendolas common in Cost Rica and at Maquenque, the Montezuma Oropendola (3 photos here) and the less common Chestnut-headed Oropendola (1 photo here). There are two more Oropendolas in Central America, both in Panama with the Crested Oropendola occasionally coming over the border into southern Costa Rica and the Black Oropendola is found only further in southern Panama. Male & female appear the same in all Oropendolas.
This week at Maquenque I observed a mother Montezuma Oropendola feeding a baby or juvenile blackbird (either a Melodious Blackbird or a Giant Cowbird if the eye is red like some said). It was interesting to watch and the pair are in one photo below and I featured them in a post while I was there titled A BLM Example in Nature.
CLICK an image to enlarge or start a manual slide show.
I have completed two new photo galleries from my recent trip to Maquenque. Of course the Maquenque Gallery is the biggest with most photos, but we stopped for coffee in Cinchona on the way back home and in 15 to 20 minutes I photographed 6 birds with two of them “Lifers” (new to me)! And of course the San Fernando Waterfall! And since it is a totally different location than Maquenque and my travel galleries are about locations – two galleries! 🙂
You have been getting samples or teasers on the blog (with 4 more to go through the 22nd) while this is the real collection from my #1 birding lodge and photos of 61 species this trip! Plus photos of lots of other nature! Check it out! And similar to the blog, you click photos to enlarge or sometimes open a sub-gallery for that bird or topic.
And the separate gallery for our coffee break stop on the way home at Soda & Mirador Cinchona for a waterfall and 6 birds, 2 of which are “Lifers” for me!
And in the interest of Coronavirus Safety I have no more trips planned until the middle of September, my annual Caribe Beach trip to Hotel Banana Azul where I will again be a “loner” doing things “solo” for safety. This place is more about relaxation than serious birding but there will be birds! 🙂 And solo walks on the beach searching for nature gems! And always enjoying someone else’s cooking! And reading! 🙂
And FYI, because of some spikes in Coronavirus cases, Costa Rica has shut down again until maybe August with no bars and restaurants only for “take out” or para llevar! (Or delivery, called “express” here.)
And even the banks were closed this week! I hope not next week as I’m trying to renew my residency! And for two weeks at least, private cars are allowed on the road for only 1 day a week based on tag number. We take the virus seriously here! And most of us wear masks. The borders are still closed to everyone until announced otherwise. They had hoped for limited border openings in August but that is not looking likely now, especially for Americans, the most infected country in the world! (Love your money but not your virus!) 🙂
Much more interesting than than those city park pigeons pooping on the statues (though some statues deserve it) are the 32 species of pigeons and doves in Central America! I have photos of 13 of those species in my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery, meaning I have a ways to go in this group! 🙂 And I got usable photos of only 3 at Maquenque with none being new for me. CLICK a photo to enlarge. I think all are beautiful!
“Small” is relative and normally would have included the Honeycreepers and Hummingbirds which came in earlier posts. And of course these two swallows could have also been with the Wetland Birds. I’m just trying to spread out the many bird photos from Manquenque.
The smallest birds are fun to see and try to photo, though difficult in rainforest shadows and often overcast skies. Here’s my efforts with these 6 and go back to see the Honeycreepers, Hummingbirds, and Wetland Birds if you missed those posts and like birds! 🙂 CLICK an image to enlarge.