Category: Forest

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Royal Flycatcher – A Lifer!

On my last morning over in Tarcoles, I did a two-hour birding hike at Carara National Park with one of the park guides named Ronald and he did a good job! My big prize was the only “Lifer” (first time seen bird) this trip or since Christmas. And the only disappointment was that it is a lousy photo made with my cell phone through the guide’s spotting scope, since it was too far away to use my regular camera even with a 600mm lens. But it does include the very unique nest of the Tropical Royal Flycatcher, Onychorhynchus coronatus (linked to eBird). They are uncommon and found only from Southern Mexico to Northern Bolivia. This was my first time to see one and he was not displaying his large red crest (on males, which this one is) or yellow on females. Three photos . . .

Tropical Royal Flycatcher, Carara National Park, Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica
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Turquoise-browed Motmot

I had a good birding hike this morning with Vicktor as my guide and got a lot of birds but haven’t had time to process all the photos yet, so here’s just one – the Turquoise-browed Motmot, Eumomota superciliosa (eBird link), one of the two main motmots in Costa Rica and this one is only found in Costa Rica north to Southern Mexico!

Turquoise-browed Motmot, Hotel Villa Lapas. Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

I will eventually share the photos of the other birds photographed this morning and eventually some photos from the Sky Way Bridges and Trails (a lot of steps!) from the 2 km mountain walk with a family of 5 from the states (the Mom born in CR) and our guide Stephanie. It was a nice, brisk, hour and a half mountain walk with pleasant people and I was hot and sweaty when we returned. 🙂

Tonight is the night hike for hopefully some good frog pix and in the morning I changed from the jungle wagon to another birding hike, this time in the Carara National Park when they open at 8am. Then leave for home at noon.

See my gallery of Turquoise-browed Motmots.

¡Pura Vida!

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Villa Lapas

My second overnight trip after moving to Costa Rica nearly 10 years ago was to this locally-owned & operated lodge/hotel near the village of Tarcoles, less than an hour west of Atenas, Villa Lapas. I did not get many bird or other wildlife photos compared to later trips other places, but you can see what I got in my Trip Gallery: Villa Lapas, July 2015. The appeal then and now is that it is located next to Carara National Park, where, with a good guide (that I did not have then), you can photograph a lot of different bird species as you also can on the right Tarcoles River Boat Safari. Since then I’ve discovered lots of better lodges for birds and other nature photography (even in that area – see bottom of post), so why am I returning now? Because of a recent announcement about this little-known place with some rooms arranged as a “Colonial Spanish Jungle Village” becoming a Marriott Resort . . .

Villa Lapas set up as a “Colonial Jungle Village”
in the Transitional Forests of Carara National Park.
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U.S. & Other Countries’ Butterflies

It’s fun to “REDISCOVER” what you already have! A new collection of photo galleries has been created in my big main gallery, to display butterfly photos I made in other countries before moving to Costa Rica, especially during my last 10 years in the USA, where I found that I had old photos for 64 species! Not as many in other countries visited, particularly since I was not focused on butterflies back then! 🙂 There is a main “folder” Gallery for “other countries” with country galleries in that or in the case of the U.S., another folder with Taxonomy Family folders for a lot more butterflies! These new galleries are organized as follows . . .

CLICK this gallery image to go there!

Here’s three samples of the photos in these galleries . . .

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The Gratifying Guarumo!

It is definitely one of my favorite trees in Costa Rica, if for no other reason, an opportunity to photograph their beautiful leaves, both dead and alive as in this photo. They attract many birds from the tiny Euphonias to the Toucans and their openness makes them great “galleries” for photographing birds and sloths! Some of my best bird photos were made in the Guarumo or Cecropia Tree that I planted in my yard the first year here, 2015.

I have them pictured in several popular photo galleries:

Here’s one shot I made the other day from my terrace . . .

Guarumo or Cecropia Tree Leaves in My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Kinkajou Killed by Car

Kinkajou killed by car, Atenas, Costa Rica

Warning! The second photo is graphic! The Kinkajou is the size of some smaller monkeys (but unrelated) and has a prehensile tail with which he hangs from tree limbs when harvesting fruit. They look similar to the smaller Olingo (but again unrelated). They are found in lowland forests in Central & South America and are nocturnal.

He/she was probably hit by a car in the night. I photographed on the bridge over a small stream on Avenida 8 just outside the Roca Verde main gate on a walk to town. It saddens me that humans continue to remove the forests and trees that keep such unique animals alive. I have never seen one alive in the wild but of course that is partly because they are nocturnal and I am not! :-) Just one more of the thousands of unique species found here in Costa Rica. ¡Pura vida!

Kinkajou killed by car, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Glimpses of Poró Flowers through a Tree

From my terrace the Oró Tree across the street is hidden by my big Higueron Tree (Strangler Fig or Ficus) but when the light is right, I can see glimpses of the orange flowers through the foliage. There is another one up the hill above me that I’ve shown here before, seen more from a distance. Historically, these trees were planted on coffee farms to provide partial shade to grow better coffee beans. They flower between December and April all over Costa Rica, sprinkling the hills and forests with their bright red-orange flowers. See Google Search Photos. :-)

Poró Tree, Atenas, Costa Rica. Flowers come out before the green leaves.
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4 Local Birding Hikes

Local hikes this December-January 2023-24 with a birding friend from British Columbia . . . Here’s a linked small gallery for each, represented with one photo from each and the linked date & place headings (or the photo) to go to that gallery . . .

December 19 – Calle Nueva, Atenas

Lesson’s Motmot on Calle Nueva, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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