Category: Trees

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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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Romancing Doves

These two White-winged Doves, Zenaida asiatica, seemed to be cuddling in the first photo and closed-eyes kissing in the second photo. I never know what to expect next in my trees, but I have some pretty good photos in my White-winged Dove Gallery. 🙂 Read about them on eBird. They are just about everywhere in the Americas and the bird I am hearing the most this month.

White-winged Doves Romancing.
White-winged Doves Romancing.

¡Pura Vida!

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Inca Dove Couple

Appearing on one of my tree limbs looking like a loving married couple the other day were two Inca Doves, one of my favorite dove species with their “sculpted” look. You can read about them on eBird or check out some of my earlier photos in my Inca Dove Gallery. The scientific name is Columbina inca and they are found from Panama north through all of Central America and Mexico into much of the Southwestern USA. Here’s just one photo:

Inca Doves, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Noisy Chachalacas

are starting to land in my Higueron Tree more often now (always chattering) but this time were hiding from me behind the limbs and leaves. Here’s a couple of poor efforts to capture a photo of one of these turkey-like wild birds. See more in my Gray-headed Chachalaca Gallery.

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Summer Tanager Female

It has been a while, yet this bird is one of the regulars in my garden, though I’ve had to go other places to see and photograph the male, who is strikingly solid red! See my collection of Summer Tangers Gallery. Or you can read about them on eBird. They are found everywhere from southern Canada to northern South America.

Summer Tanager Female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Two more photos . . .

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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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“Half in shadows & halfway in light…”

“There’s something magical about rooftops. You feel like you’re in ‘Mary Poppins.'”

~George Clarke

ROOFTOPS through my Higueron (Strangler Fig) Tree . . .

“Half in shadows and halfway in light” – Rooftops of Roca Verde, 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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Chachalacas Stop By!

The full name of this one is Gray-headed Chachalaca (Ortalis cinereiceps) with the only other one named “Plain Chachalaca” and it’s found only in Guanacaste (dryer NW Costa Rica). This one is a regular “chicken-sized” bird living in my neighborhood, though like other birds, I’ve been seeing fewer for a while. They always come in groups or families and “chatter” a lot, thus Ticos sometimes jokingly call a person who talks a lot “a Chachalaca!” :-)

Here’s three shots of them moving between my trees and you can see more photos in my Gray-headed Chachalaca GALLERY. I see them in many parts of Costa Rica and they are indigenous to Central America.

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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