Mexican Heather – Cuphea hyssopifolia (Wikipedia link) is sometimes called “False Heather” because it is not a real heather or even in the Heather family, just another unique Central American flower. This one was a “hitchhiker” with another plant from a nursery (Vivero), I think it came with one of the Lantanas that I bought and planted. Anyway, I like it as something a little different and have it in a pot with some Lantana where it attracts only those tiny little butterflies like Blues and Hairstreaks.
Mexican Heather – Cuphea hyssopifolia, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” – Gerard de Nerval
More different butterflies are beginning to show up like this Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link) on my driveway the other day while watering the garden (why blacktop is wet). And it was still windy then, but I guess if the caterpillar turns to a butterfly, he has to eat! Windy or not! 🙂
Cassius Blue, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And oh yeah, he is called a “Blue” because the top of his wings are solid blue, but you only see that when he is flying. He seems to never land with his wings open. 🙂
Another competitor for my little Rufous-tailed Hummingbird who thinks he owns my garden is this Blue-vented Hummingbird, Saucerottia hoffmanni(my gallery link) and I haven’t seen him try to stop this larger deep-blue tailed hummingbird who has also been around my gardens since my first year here. You can read about him on eBird. A tropical bird found only in Costa Rica & Nicaragua with maybe a few strays into Honduras & El Salvador. 🙂 Or see more than 400 observations in Costa Rica on iNaturalist CR.
Here’s two shots recently on my Porterweed flowers. And yes, it is still windy, but these hummers have to eat every few minutes, regardless of the weather! And we all hope for the rains to start any day now and maybe then the winds will disappear! 🙂
Only my second time to see this species with the other documented with just a cell phone on 8th Avenue in Boquerón Barrio, not far from my house. Thankfully, these photos, made with my Canon camera in my garden, will improve the quality of the photos in my GALLERY:Banded Orange Heliconian, Dryadula phaetusa. 🙂 This is mostly a Central American Butterfly with rare strays in Mexico & SW U.S. as shown on the few Butterflies & Moths postings, but more than 200 observations on iNaturalist CR. 🙂
Or it seems that I will do anything for one! 🙂 That is why I like going to the nature lodges where you can get closer to such colorful birds. Well, here are my step by step procedures for one of those many that come near my house (plus waiting for a blue sky!) 🙂 . . .
He’s back! (And while the wind is still blowing!) As one of the most common tiny butterflies in my garden each year, maybe he is signaling the beginning of “butterfly season?” 🙂 The Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis (my gallery link) is only a little bigger than my thumbnail and yet is one of the most intricately-designed of all the butterflies. I even used a photo of one on my2023 Christmas Card! 🙂
This one is the first of that species in my garden this year, but I expect there to be many more! 🙂 And a funny thing to me is that all my many photos of this species have come from my garden, not even one from another location in Costa Rica! But iNaturalist CR shows them all over, on both slopes, but with more in the hills and on the Pacific Slope for whatever reason.
Rounded Metalmark, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaRounded Metalmark, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
I never claim to be an authority on anything in nature, but my deductions of this photo on K’s fence the other day lead me to believe that it is a Juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. The three Saltators are the only birds this size with a “seedeater bill” (short/stubby fat) that also have the white eyebrow and little white line under the eye. Thus my deduction that it is a Saltator and because just 8 days ago I shared a photo of an adult Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (most common saltator here), I believe this one may be the offspring of that adult.
The Merlin AI identifier (eBird) is very good, but not on juveniles like this, and it just said it was “unable to identify” and the iNaturalist AI (also very good) said “not confident to identify” but then went on to give it’s first choice of “possible” species as a double-collared seedeater (Sporophila caerulescens) and that was also the first choice of Google Lens, but that species is South American and never sighted in Costa Rica, plus it does not have a white eyebrow and in my opinion not a good option! 🙂
I did find some juvenile Cinnamon-bellied Saltators online similar to this, and yes, many are darker or grayer than this one, but a few similar. Whew! Identification can be a lot of work! 🙂 So here it is, whatever it is . . .
I think it is a JUVENILE CINNAMON-BELLIED SALTATOR, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
See all of my photos of this species in Cinnamon-bellied Saltator Gallery which, by the way, was formerly called the “Grayish Saltator.”
When K had his gardener plant a Zinnia bed on the hillside just above my roof, I got my gardener to add a bench for viewing the many butterflies there. Now with the high winds continuing and me seeing very view birds from house-level, I have been trying the hillside bench and that is where I got the Gray Hawk and all of the last few days’ birds. I even got a Red-lored Parrot one day! But because he was near the top of the far hill, not a very good photo. I may or may not share it later. 🙂
Here is a gallery with three views from the bench that you email receivers may need to go online to properly see the left-to-right sequence (click post title above to go online). The email version does funny things with the photos sometimes. 🙂
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE and then click through a manual slideshow . . .
Front-Left to trees around my house.Straight ahead above George’s roof to one hill + his trees.Front-Right to far hill and my landlord’s close slope & fence.
More bird photos coming from this new birding spot! 🙂 So far I’ve shared these: a Gray Hawk, a Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, a Stripe-headed Sparrow, a Great Kiskadee and tomorrow a Streaked Flycatcher and maybe later the Red-lored Parrot (grainy photo). A lot more variety than what I was seeing from my terrace rocking chair! 🙂 And though a little earlier, this was the spot from where I got that cool photo of two Keel-billed Toucans perched with a Chachalaca on the hill behind George’s house! 🙂 Right now I’m not scheduled to travel until the first week of July, so this is my nature photography mirador! And who knows, before long, eBird just might list it as one of the “Birding Hot Spots” in Costa Rica! 🙂
His size, that yellow patch on the top of his head and the rust-colored wings are three things to assure you that he is a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus and not a Social Flycatcher, Boat-billed or one of the other similar flycatchers. He is one of the more common birds all over Costa Rica, almost as much as the Clay-colored Thrush and known for singing his name: “kis-ka-dee.” You can read about him on eBird or see some of my many photos in myGreat Kiskadee Gallery. Here’s two shots from my garden the other day . . .
