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On what I call the back side of my little house, I sat in a chair Wednesday evening for 20 or 30 minutes, scanning the hill behind my house and photographed several birds with this Gray Hawk, Buteo plagiatus (eBird link) being my prize of that birding sit! 🙂 And see the other Gray Hawks I’ve photographed here in my Gray Hawk Gallery. This hawk is found from Costa Rica north through Mexico to the Southwestern U.S. along the Mexican border, mostly a Central American bird.
Most mornings at Maquenque I walked from my cabin to breakfast around the Lagoon, through two little forests, and a corner of the farm looking for birds. One morning I saw this juvenile, young or immature Gray Hawk perched in a tree long enough for me to get several shots and in okay light! To see the different looks of Gray Hawks, go to my Gray Hawk Gallery with shots from several areas of Costa Rica. I did see a more mature Gray Hawk on another day, but in the shadows and my photo is not good enough to share here though in my gallery.
¡Pura vida!
Here’s the first five portraits with more coming, though all fifty-something birds I’ve photographed will not be good enough for what I’m calling a “portrait” or “a close-up” of just one bird. Plus other types of photos are coming from Maquenque over the next few days or week, even though I return home tomorrow.
I decided to pick only one of my many hawk photos and honestly, I’m not sure why I liked this one best. The Common Black Hawk is the one I’ve photographed the most with the Road Hawk a close second and I have some good photos of both. The Gray Hawk (eBird description) is common and sure of himself and seems determined in this photo. See others I’ve photographed in my Gray Hawk Gallery from many locations. And read below The Backstory on how and where I photographed this and the other Gray Hawks in my gallery.
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| Black Guan Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Adult Gray Hawk Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me in Costa Rica (1 in Nicaragua) |
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| Juvenile Gray Hawk Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Female Collared Trogon Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me |
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| Male Collared Trogon Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me |
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| Chestnut-headed Oropendola in Poro Tree Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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Slaty Spinetail
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| Red-faced Spinetail Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me |
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| Common Chlorospingus Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me |
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| Clay-colored Thrush or Yiqüirro The National Bird of Costa Rica Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica First Sighting for Me (only Southern in the past) |
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| Dusky-capped Flycatcher Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Brown Jay Tapanti National Park, Costa Rica |
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Passerini Tanagers, Male & 2 Females
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“The sharp thrill of seeing them reminded me of childhood happiness, gifts under the Christmas tree, perhaps, a kind of euphoria we adults manage to shut out most of the time. This is why I bird-watch, to recapture what it’s like to live in this moment, right now.”
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| Osprey Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Gray Hawk
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua |
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| Swallowtail Kite El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua |
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| Turkey Vulture Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Black Vulture Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| White Chinese Goose Selva Negra Mountain Resort |
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| White Chinese Goose Selva Negra Mountain Resort |
