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Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis

UPDATE & CORRECTION, April 2024:

I made a big mistake when I first identified this back in 2022. The real identity is Simple Sarota, Sarota acantus. Sorry for any inconvenience! I first made the correction with a blog post April 14, 2024: Correcting a Butterfly ID. Then later decided I should make it here also.

I’m still going through photos from my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province and just discovered a new favorite that has taken a lot of work with the photos to get them visible. They are of a teeny tiny butterfly the size of a fingernail or at most my thumbnail! And with an internet search I discovered that it is a Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis (Wikipedia article link). In my photos he/she is on the leaf of a flower and then on the stem of a flower. It is about the size of a fingernail or thumbnail, the smallest I’ve ever photographed and websites say it is one of the smallest in the world and the smallest in the Americas, found from the western U.S. south through Venezuela. They come in many color combinations and I think mine is prettier than any I saw online! 🙂 It wasn’t included in my earlier Rainforest Butterflies post because I had not processed these photos yet, made on my last day there in one of their gardens.

Western Pygmy-Blue Butterfly, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Rainforest Butterflies

I managed to get photos of 6 butterflies at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel out of about 10 different species I saw. These aren’t great photos but they document what I saw all over the hotel property from gardens to the lakes. Of these 6, four are first-time-seen butterflies for me, all but the Yellow and the White Peacock. Here’s one photo for the email announcement of this post, then all 6 are in a gallery in the full post online.

Unidentified Butterfly at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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Muscovy Ducklings

Muscovy Duck & Ducklings, Chachagua Rainforest, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

On one of the small lakes or ponds at Chachagua Rainforest lived a family of Muscovy Ducks (eBird link) which are native to Central & South America plus Florida & the West Indies. For the second time I’ve been able to capture these resident ducks with babies. Everyone loves little ducklings! 🙂 See some more slightly older Muscovy Ducklings I photographed at Macaw Lodge near Carara National Park in my Muscovy Duck Gallery. Now here are 3 more photos from Chachagua Rainforest . . .

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Living in a Garden

In some ways that is what I do by living in Costa Rica, “Living in a Garden,” 🙂 but in traveling to visit the many wonderful lodges and hotels around the country I literally eat & sleep in a garden, and some of my hiking is in a garden with even the “wild” rainforest having flowers blooming year around! Chachagua Rainforest Hotel (their website link) in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province, Costa Rica had one of the largest and better gardens I have visited with all of their plants growing in a rainforest on the Caribbean slopes of the mountains (the rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean or on the eastern side of Continental Divide).

I’ll place one photo here for the emailed version of post then a gallery of 20 flowers will be only in the online post. Just click the “see more” link! 🙂

Flower at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Costa Rica – across the sidewalk from my cabin.
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The Great Kiskadee . . .

. . . is one of the most common birds all over Costa Rica and Chachagua was no exception. Here’s two shots from Chachagua and you can read about him on eBird or see more of my photos in my Great Kiskadee Gallery. 🙂

Great Kiskadee, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Great Kiskadee in a grooming posture, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Alajuela, Costa Rica

“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

-Maya Angelou

¡Pura Vida!

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Rainforest Dragonflies & Damselflies

Here’s 9 photos of 7 or 8 different species of Dragonflies and Damselflies. After I got home I used my new dragonfly book to try and identify these guys, but the book has too many that are similar and yet not exact matches to these, so I still have a big ID job! 🙂

All were photographed on two of the many lakes at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel and one stream on the one day that was sunny during my week there. Be sure to see my photo gallery of Dragonflies and Damselflies (58 photos of 30+ species) and if you are in Costa Rica and interested in Dragonflies, the new book is titled: Dragonflies & Damselflies of Costa Rica. (Link is to Cornell Press, the publisher, but it’s also available on amazon.com and some bookstores here.)

One photo here for the emailed version of post, then 8 more photos in the gallery that follows online.

MAYBE Thorn-tipped or Big Blue Dancer Damselfly, Chachagua Rainforest, Costa Rica.
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Living on Water!

Yes, the above water plants are floating on a lake in Chachagua and living on the nutrients they gain from the water as do the plants below call “air plants” that live on the nutrients from both the tree (or vine in this case) and the water in the very humid air of a rainforest. A gentle reminder for us to drink our 8 glasses of water a day! 🙂

Air plants living on nutrients from the tree and the water in the air.
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Toucan at Breakfast

Yesterday morning at the beginning of my last full day at Chachagua Rainforest we had a Yellow-throated Toucan (eBird link) juvenile join those of us who were early enough. The waiter was feeding him fresh papaya which he enjoyed, but after a while he seemed to gaze into the forest where his momma taught him to find food and he was back into his natural habitat. But a few of us enjoyed his brief visit with the humans! 🙂 4 photos . . .

Yellow-throated Toucan at Breakfast Table, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Costa Rica.
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Heliconius doris viridis – A “Lifer” Butterfly

That’s the official name and commonly called just Heliconius doris (Wikipedia article link) or Doris Longwing, whether the red or blue version. Though not usually said about butterflies, this is a “Lifer” butterfly for me! First one to see or photograph! And if you count my “Lifer” fungus, this makes 3 lifers on this trip! 🙂 So my Heliconius doris viridis Gallery has only these 3 photos in it for now. This butterfly is said to be more common in the Amazon of Brazil, though I didn’t see it when I was there. 🙂

Heliconius doris viridis,, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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