Costa Rica! Boat-billed Heron
Boat-billed Heron: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Not my best shot of a Boat-billed Heron, since his signature feature…the huge flat bill, is completely hidden under his wing…but still 🙂 The bird was tucked well back into the dark foliage above the water at the junction of the Sarapiqui and Puerto Viejo rivers. It took some tricky maneuvering on the part of our boat captain to get us even this good a view. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! finishing up the Tiger
Bare-throated Tiger-heron (chick): Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — A few last photos of the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron chick and some of its antics. A very photogenic bird. From the boat on the Sarapiqui River upstream from Puerto Viejo. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 454mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Tiger
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Another shot from our encounter with the Tiger-Herons from the boat on the Sarapiqui River. This is the adult Bare-throated Tiger-heron. You can see the fine striping o the neck that gives the family its name. You can also see the out-of-focus chick in the background. Impressive bird! OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 420mm equivalent (we were close!). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — You have to look hard to see the tiger stripes on any adult tiger-heron…there are six species…but all of the chicks and immatures share the same basic brown and white bold stripes. I have to suspect that is where the family name comes from. This immature Bare-throated seen from a boat on the Sarapiqui river (only a chick really as it was still begging and being fed) shows both the striping and some unusual attitude. The full flaring of the neck and the crest are not commonly seen. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 736mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! feed me
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Not far up the Sarapiqui from the dock our boat captain started maneuvering us in close to the far bank of the river, clearly looking for something. What we saw first was the immature (fledgling) Tiger-Heron on a downed tree trunk at the waterline. But then the adult emerged from the vegetation and gave us good looks. The fledgling was becoming increasingly agitated, assuming all kinds of begging postures, and sure enough the adult came over and deposited a largish fish from its crop into the beak its offspring…though the fledgling was fully as large as the adult. It was, as our guide pointed out, a real “geographic moment”…all any wildlife photographer could want. This sequence of shots does not do it full justice…but it is a close as I could come. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Costa Rica! Green Heron
Green Heron: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, December 2023 — The community owned dock in Puerto Viejo is home to several shallow bottomed boats with rain and sun awnings that will take you, on a good day, upstream on the Sarapiqui and then up the Rio Puerto Viejo into the heart for the La Selva Biological Station. I say a good day because the water levels have to be fairly high, and yet the current not too strong. On downstream days it is still a nice ride, but downstream is through mostly banana plantations, and upstream in into the rainforest…so you always see more wildlife on upstream days. I was resigned to having a downstream trip this year, but the boat captain decided at the last moment to take us upstream. These boat captains (or this boat captain, I am pretty sure I have always had the same boat) know the river intimately, and can find the resident and visiting birds and wildlife with amazing accuracy. No two trips are the same, of course, but I have seen some very interesting wildlife from the boat. This bird, though a great bird to see anywhere, is not maybe a good example of interesting…as it is bird that you can see pretty much anywhere from the Canadian Border (a few even breed in Canada), all down through the US, south through Central American, to the Amazon drainage and northern South America. Always around water…shallow rivers, lakes, and ponds. We have them nesting around ponds here in Southern Maine. So I can’t say I was over-the-top excited to see this one on the Sarapiqui in Costa Rica…but it is still a good bird and always fun to photograph. This one was nicely posed against the shadows of the undergrowth on the bank of the river. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Laughing Falcon
Laughing Falcon: Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Just down the road, maybe 10-15 minutes from the Soda, you enter the territory of at least one pair of Laughing Falcons. It is amazing how often the sharp-eyed bus drivers find at least one of the resident falcons as we drive by on the road. Sometimes there is room to stop for a quick photo, often through the window glass of the bus. Once we even managed to get the bus off the road far enough to get out. This past trip we stopped for a few moments on a dangerous curve…as long as the driver’s nerve held. These small snake-eating falcons are more typical of the lowlands, so this pair is nesting near the top of their elevation range. There must be a good quantity of snakes in the deforested area below the road…part of the landslide scar of the earthquake that destroyed much of Cinchona in the 90s. Though they look and act somewhat like hawks, Falcons are more closely related to the parrots…basically meat-eating parrots with less bright colors. We have been seeing and photographing these Laughing Falcons for at least the past 10 years, the same birds or succeeding generations. This is certainly my closest encounter to date. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and Photo Quality.
Costa Rica! Red-head
Red-headed Barbet: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — The Red-headed Barbet certainly deserves another shot…in my opinion one of the most stunning birds of Costa Rica. And only my third sighting in over 10 trips there (and one of those was the slightly less colorful but just as interesting female). And this encounter was on our first real bird stop on the first day of our adventure. What a way to start! OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and TouchRetouch (some banana removed to feature the bird).
Costa Rica! Northern Emerald Toucanet
Northern Emerald-Toucanet: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Some authorities have this as the Blue-throated Toucanet and rank it as a species, but the IOU has it as a sub-species of the Northern Emerald-Toucanet. It is a common bird in the foothills and up through the cloud forests of Costa Rica and Western Panama. I have seen it many times at the Soda at Cinchona, and at Miriam’s Quetzals and Batsu Gardens above the Savegre River in San Geraldo de Dota. It is one of the chief predators of many other bird species…including the Resplendent Quetzal…taking both eggs and chicks. It is also a fruit eater, and comes to bananas and plantains at feeders within its range and elevation. Through the name…toucanet…might lead you to think it might be smaller than other toucan’s, it is at least the size of an Araciri or even Keel-billed Toucan. Not a bird you are likely to overlook wherever you encounter it. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Scarlet-rumped Tanager
Scarlet-rumped Tanager: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — In the brief time I have studying and photographing tropical birds, this tanager has had three different names. It was the Scarlet-rumped Tanager when I started…then it was the Passerini’s Tanager on the Caribbean slope and the Charrie’s Tanger on the Pacific slope…at least in Costa Rica. The males have always been indistinguishable, but the females differ enough to raise some doubt. Then in 2018, they lumped the species again, and we are back to Scarlet-rumped Tanager wherever it might be seen. These Tangers are common throughout the lowlands and foothills of Central America, and are regular visitors to feeders, so they are no real challenge to see. Pretty birds though and worth a look. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.