Tag: Chachagua Rainforest Hotel

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Correcting a Butterfly ID

Two years ago, in May 2022, I did a first time trip to a new lodge for me that a friend recommended, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel (link to my trip gallery) and I got a lot of bird photos and quite a few butterflies, two of which are still unidentified. BUT, one of those I identified then was misidentified, and for that I apologize! I first called it a Western Pygmy (blog post link). In retrospect, there is no excuse, but what caused it was that because it was a tiny little fingernail-sized butterfly, I assumed (a dangerous word!) that it was one of the many in the family Lycaenidae or Gossamer-Wings butterflies because all of them are very tiny like this one. Bad assumption as I have now learned that there are tiny ones in all of the families and this one is actually in the Riodinidae or Metalmarks family! It is a Simple Sarota (my species gallery link) or the scientific name Sarota acantus (butterfliesandmoths link where only two of us have submitted photos). 🙂 So I re-submit with the correct name!

Simple Sarota, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Simple Sarota, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Simple Sarota, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And see all of my Costa Rica butterfly photos arranged by families and then species in my gallery: BUTTERFLIES & Moths of Costa Rica (270+ species)

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Two Basilisks

Everyone prefers the Emerald Basilisk, sometimes called Green Basilisk, but the Brown Basilisk is seen just about as much even with his better camouflage. 🙂 In these photos, the Emerald is an adult male with the head crest while the brown without a crest could be either a juvenile or a female. Both are found all over Costa Rica, especially near water. Note that both have a tail longer than the body. And both are sometimes called “Jesus Christ Lizards” because they walk on water (or run).

Emerald Basilisk, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Costa Rica.
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“Upside-down Yogi” (Sloth)

This Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (Wikipedia link) was in this Guarumo or Cecropia Tree long enough for multiple efforts to photograph it, though in the shadows or no good light, at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel grounds. A peaceful creature! 🙂 In a peaceful place! 🙂

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Costa Rica

“The three-toed sloth lives a peaceful, vegetarian life in perfect harmony with its environment. A good-natured smile is forever on its lips…I have seen that smile with my own eyes. I am not one given to projecting human traits and emotions onto animals, but many a time during that month in Brazil, looking up at a sloth in repose, I felt I was in the presence of upside-down yogis deep in meditation or hermits deep in prayer, wise beings whose intense imaginative lives were beyond the reach of scientific probing.”

― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

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Social Flycatcher

This pretty little bird does not get a lot of attention and is often mistaken for an immature or small Kiskadee or Boat-billed Flycatcher. This particular Social Flycatcher (eBird link) landed on this rusty old ornamental fencing around a lake platform and made an interesting image to me. 🙂 And of course I have a Social Flycatcher Gallery with photos from all over Costa Rica.

Social Flycatcher, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

TRIP GALLERY: May 2022, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel

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Rainforest Frogs

I only have photos of 4 species of the many we saw on the night hike at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, but any frog I can add to my collection is great for me and two of these are new to me. There are about 150 species of frogs in Costa Rica and my gallery Amphibians CR has 33+ species, some I’m unable to identify. Frogs are amazing! 🙂

Blue Jeans Frog, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, San Ramon Canton, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica
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Scarlet-rumped Tanager

This one on the Caribbean Slope used to be called Passerini’s Tanager with the Pacific Slope’s called Cherrie’s Tanager, but now they are all called Scarlet-rumped Tanager (eBird link), yet eBird and others still use “Passerini’s” and “Cherrie’s” in parentheses after the new together name, especially with the females which are distinctly different. And you will see below that I have two photos of females with one either a Cherrie’s or a darker morph of the Passerini’s. Confusing? Yes! 🙂 And of course the new species name only describes the male which is, by the way, identical on both slopes! 🙂

Thus IN MY BIRD GALLERIES, I still have two galleries but added the new name in front of each:

Male Scarlet-rumped Tanager (Passerini’s), Chachagua Rainforest, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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Band-tailed Barbthroat

My favorite hummingbird seen or photographed on this trip was this Band-tailed Barbthroat which is not seen very often (only my second time). And I got only one useable photo before he flew off as do all hummingbirds. You can read about this uncommon species on eBird or see the one other I’ve photographed in my Band-tailed Barbthroat Gallery. The other one was at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge near Golfito (where I photographed almost twice as many species as here). This bird is found only in Central America and Northern South America.

This was indeed a fortunate find and on top of that, in decent light! 🙂 But only one good shot and he’s gone! 🙂 I had very little sunshine the whole week I was at Chachagua, just a few hours on Wednesday, so to get this beautiful bird in good light was a real blessing! My trip gallery is up now but unfortunately is filled with a lot of low-light photos. Sorry!

¡Pura Vida!

TRIP GALLERY: May 2022, Chachagua Rainforest Hotel

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Chachagua Trip Gallery

Though I still have another week’s worth of blog posts about my visit to Chachagua Rainforest Hotel, I have also completed the photo gallery on this trip for anyone who wants to see all the shots from this trip together in one place. 🙂 CLICK on the image of first page of gallery below which this time is all in just 3 folders: Birds, Other Wildlife and Hotel Grounds.

First Page of this “Trip Gallery” – CLICK to visit the gallery.

If that image click doesn’t work, try this new SmugMug Gallery Address URL: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-May-16-21-Chachagua-Rainforest-Hotel-San-Ramon-Alajuela

¡Pura Vida!