The other heron at the bridge…
Green Heron: Rincon River Bridge, Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Along with the Bare-throated Tiger Heron I posted yesterday, we had this very cooperative Green Heron…well, maybe just “close” Green Heron. It did not, in fact, ever sit completely in the open and in good light at the same time…but one out of two is not bad either…and with some selective focus, it produced a pretty good shot. Of course, the Costa Rican Green Heron is no different from the Green Herons we can see almost anywhere in the United States (or anywhere in between for that matter) but the Costa Rican birds are resident there. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Grey-headed Nigrita
Grey-headed Nigrita: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda — A bird of the high country and the high canopy, that occasionally comes down to feed. In Bwindi we were looking for Albertine Rift endemics, and this is not one of them…being found at higher elevations in both Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Uganda. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Bare-throated Tiger Heron
Bare-throated Tiger Heron: Rincon River Bridge, Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — The Rincon River Bridge in Rincon, just a mile or so from the Bay, is famous for one bird: The Yellow-billed Cotinga which can often be seen in flight, and rarely perched, there early in the morning. This is a very hard bird to see elsewhere, and I suspect that most birders who have seen it, have seen it right there on the bridge, just at sunup. We went. We saw it…though we did not get a look at a perched bird…but while we were there we had some fun with Herons and other birds as the sun finally burned off the morning mist. This is a Bare-throated Tiger Heron. I looked it up…or tried to…and there are 6 species of Tiger Herons. The name, apparently, comes from the striping in the plumage and the overall rufous coloration. They used to be Tiger Bitterns. I long ago stopped looking for logic in bird names. 🙂 This one looked particularly ruddy in the morning sun. I am not sure what was going on in the second shot with the ruff of feathers around the throat…this is not behavior I have seen in Herons before. It might have been a trick of the wind…but I had the impression that the ruff was intentional and part of the hunting posture??? If anyone know different, please chime in in the comments. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 and 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Chubb’s Cisticola
Chubb’s Cisticola: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The Cisticolas are a confusing lot, and we saw many different Cisticola species in Uganda. I believe this is the Chubb’s which is common in the western mountains of Uganda. It was the first bird we saw as we explored the margins of the ranger trail-head parking while two of us waited from the Gorilla trekkers to come back. Certainly, like all Cisticolas, a perky, cheerful little bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 2000-3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Wet Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird: Las Tardes Community Ecological Project, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — We got caught in the rain on our exploration of the road above Las Tardes station, but made it back before we got soaked…not so much true for this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird that was hanging around off the covered deck where we had our lunch. I suspect he was enjoying the shower. The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird seems to be the most prevalent hummer in Central America…and is certainly the most present around feeders. No feeders at Las Tardes, and this one was still trying to dominate the available resources. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .3EV.
Uganda Edition: Black and White Manakin
Black and White Manakin: Rushaga Gorilla Lodge, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We did not arrive at our lodge in Bwindi until after sun-set so my first photos there at the edge of the National Park were light-challenged to say the least. This is a Black and White Manakin that was feeding below the balcony in front of my room. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Mixed feeding flock…
Pic for today: Mixed feeding flock: Las Tardes Community Ecology Project, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — White-throated Shrike-Tanager, Rufous Mourner, Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, White-winged Tanager, Twany-winged Woodcreeper. As I mentioned yesterday, we had already turned back from our exploration of the road into Corcovado National Park above the Las Tardes station when we encountered this mixed feeding flock of hard to see and hard to photograph birds moving through the undergrowth at just about eye-level. (In fact, if I had not stopped to tie my shoe, we would have missed it.) Yesterday’s Black-striped Woodcreeper was with these birds…along with a few others that I did not manage even a bad shot of. That is the way it happens in tropical birding. We had seen very little until this point in our hike, and then, for a few moments there were so many birds we did not know where to look. And of course, they were all buried in undergrowth so the photographers among us were very frustrated. Just how it goes in the tropics. Sony Rx10iv at around 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. (Disclaimer: Facebook may rearrange these photos randomly, so I will add the names to the individual photos as captions.)
Uganda Edition: Grey-throated Barbet
Grey-throated Barbet: Neck (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park), Uganda, August 2022 — There are a lot of cryptic little birds in the forests of western Uganda, some found only there. This is the Grey-headed Barbet, not one of the rarer birds, with ranges in both far West and East Africa, and being common in the mountain forests of Western Uganda. It often likes to perch high in dead trees, which is exactly where we found this one. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Black-striped Woodcreeper
Black-striped Woodcreeper: Las Tardes Ecological Project, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — In our guide, Mario’s opinion this is the most handsome of the woodcreepers of the Osa Peninsula and Costa Rica. It is not any easier to see than any of the others, sharing the habit of working up the trunks of trees in heady cover, but this one, part of a mixed flock we encountered after we had already turned back on our exploration of the road above Las Tardes, was more cooperative than most…giving us several good views. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications, and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo on the iPad Pro. Equivalent ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Speckled Tinkerbird and Yellow-spotted Barbet
Speckled Tinkerbird and Yellow-spotted Barbet, Neck (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park), Uganda, August 2022 — Two Barbets in a single view…the Speckled Tinkerbird and the Yellow-spotted Barbet…both with all but identical ranges in the forests southwestern Uganda. These were at Neck on the way from Ishasha to Bwindi. Sony Rx10iv at 567mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1EV.