Here’s one shot each of a male & female Collared Trogon, Trogon collaris (my gallery link). They were the first two birds we saw in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve or Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort yesterday. Just waiting on us as we arrived! 🙂 This particular trogon is found only in Central America and the northern portions of South America. And as you can tell from my collection of photos (above linked gallery), is found only in the higher elevations like where we were yesterday, inside a cloud. 🙂
On all my past trips I’ve seen and photographed this Yellow-headed Caracara -Daptrius chimachima (my gallery link) but always in the past he was on a log, tree limb or the ground and once flying low near the ground. But this one of him flying high with that great wingspan showing is new for me. Not a good photo of a moving bird, 100 meter up, shot from a moving boat, but I at least I sort of captured that wide & colorful wingspan. Just one of many, many birds you can see on Rio Tarcoles! 🙂
Yellow-headed Caracara, Rio Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
And today is the day we leave early (5am) for a 6:30 birding hike at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel, north of San Ramon. Not as many birds but they will all be different than seen at Tarcoles and Carara Park and followed by a really good “Farm to Table” Breakfast and a visit to their gardens. I was there in 2017, my only time before today. On top of a mountain! This particular cloud forest reserve was the specific request of one of my Canadian birding friends. Walter is our transportation. And photos from there will be shared along with the Tuesday trip photos over the next few weeks. Every day is an adventure in Costa Rica! 🙂
A small flock of these egrets flying up and away from the Cow Pasture across the street on January 31. They are regulars at the pasture but I seldom try to photograph. A small group of houses are at the south end of the pasture and the birds are flying up from the pasture and over those houses. I’m able to get closer and better photos on some of my river trips as you can see in my Cattle-Egrets Gallery. Just the one photo here.
Western Cattle-Egret, Cow Pasture, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
A favorite of mine among the many birds found only in Central & South America, the Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus (my gallery link). One of the many wild birds that seem to like power lines for perching. And that can make it easy to photograph, depending on the sunlight of course! 🙂
Tropical Kingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaTropical Kingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
This is the first time I’ve seen any Euphonia in quite a while, maybe more than a year and usually somewhere else other than my garden. And I got both the male and the female, though the male was in the shadows and thus not as good a photo.
Male Yellow-crowned EuphoniaFemale Yellow-crowned Euphonia
¡Pura Vida!
See more in my Yellow-crowned Euphonia Gallery where I have photos from 3 other locations, with this being the first of this species in my garden.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” ~Proverbs 13:12
Cortez Amarillo Trees blooming, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Arenal Volcano National Park, Alajuela, Costa Rica
My blog/website administrative page has a bucket for “Drafts” and occasionally I put something in there that I think I might work into a blog post later (like yesterday’s). Back in 2022 I placed the above quote from Proverbs that I picked from one of my Daily Bible Readings to comment on later and here I am, about 3 years later, commenting on it (with photos!). 🙂
