With 4 birds in today’s post and 4 more tomorrow I will have shared all that I got useable photos of on the Christmas trip. And no, I got no “lifers” or first-time seen birds on this trip, but that is expected when you have photos of more than 359 species of birds in Costa Rica! It’s getting harder to find a new species! 🙂
Celeste Mountain Lodge, Flowers, Insects
Each night many came early for dinner to visit & use the wifi. In addition to this dining room there was a lounge area below, all open-air, simple, rustic, and ecologically sound structurally. |
After breakfast with friends from France, Italy, & New York City. |
Hercules Beetle Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Hercules Beetle Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Chestnut-sided Warbler with Caught Insect in Rain Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica I did not include this photo with the other birds at the lodge. |
Heliconia Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Heliconia Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Heliconia Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Hibiscus Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Heliconia Celeste Mountain Lodge, Bijagua, Costa Rica |
Tomorrow I share the last of my trip to Bijagua, “The Celeste Mountain Lodge Rainforest Trail.”
Thrushes, Warblers & Swallows at Sarapiquí
Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica The national bird of Costa Rica |
Wood Thrush (possibly Swainson’s or Gray-cheeked) Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
Buff-rumped Warbler Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
Chestnut-sided Warbler Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
Southern Rough-winged Swallow Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica |
Mangrove Swallows Puerto Viejo & Sarapiquí Rivers, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica |
More Birds from Rancho Naturalista
The following photos were made at CATIE campus near Turrialba, an agronomic program for research and education for all of Latin America farmers, headquartered in Costa Rica with a campus Trip Advisor reviews if planning to go. Cost is now $10 per visitor. It helped to have a good birding guide because he sees things I often miss! There were a lot of small forest birds I could not photograph because of light, distance and small size of birds. But some of the ones I got below are “first-timers” for me and that is good as my bird collection grows.
here and one in San Jose. My guide at Rancho Naturalista, Harry, took 3 of us here for the morning of the 7th of Dec. It is a good birding place with a big pond or small lake and a Botanical Gardens with tropical plants from all over Latin America. This terrain is different than the lodge and has lots of possibilities. See the
Tropical Kingbird Too big for gray-capped or boat-bill flycatchers I believe. All three are colored the same and sometimes difficult to ID. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Northern Jacana, second in number only to egrets at the pond. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
White-ringed Flycatcher, my first photo Like the Social Flycatcher except white on head makes a circle (ring) CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Prothonotary Warbler, my first photo. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Keel-billed Toucan, always from a distance, Not easy for me to photograph. CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Chestnut-sided Warbler, which I photographed again at lodge better This trip is my first time to photo this bird and twice at that! 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Chestnut-backed Antbird, not great photo but my first! CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Common Tody-flycatcher, another 1st photo – A good day! 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Muscovy Duck, who we later observed mating 🙂 CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Great-tailed Grackle, female, common all over Costa Rica CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
Hoffman’s Woodpecker CATIE Campus, Turrialba, Costa Rica |
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. ~Joseph Addison, The Spectator, 1712