Costa Rica! Green Hermit
Green Hermit Hummingbird: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — I prefer not take photos of hummingbirds at feeders, but some hummers, some of the time, are just impossible to get otherwise. This Green Hermit, like most hermits, makes lighting raids on feeders at mid-elevations in Costa Rica and Panama, but spends most of its time out of sight deep in the forest understory. Again, if memory serves, this is a bird that I have only ever seen at the Soda in Cinchona. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 564mm and 334mm equivalent. (Close enough to hear the wingbeats 🙂 Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Coppery-headed Emerald
Coppery-headed Emerald: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — One of only 2, (or 4, depending you who you listen to), hummingbirds endemic to Costa Rica. (Hunningbirds native to only Costa Rica and western Panama are sometimes counted). A smallish hummingbird of mid-elevations, I have only ever seen it at the Soda, and at the relatively nearby hummingbird feeders at La Paz Waterfall Gardens…though it is listed as common at its elevation, in the foothills and mountains of north and central Costa Rica. Males tend to stay high in the canopy, and females lower down…except along edges and at feeders, where they mingle at all levels. They tend to nest high in their range, and then to disperse lower after the chicks are fledged. 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! Female White-bellied Mountain-Gem
White-bellied Mountain-Gem: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Among the many hummingbirds coming to the feeders and flowers at Soda Cinchona, the female White-bellied Mountain-Gems were probably among the rarest. I have only ever seen them here, and at La Paz Waterfall Gardens just up the road at a similar elevation on the same slope of the mountains. The male would have a purple gorget…but if memory serves, I have never seen a male. 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! Merry Christmas bird
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica — The Resplendent Quetzal has become my Christmas bird. For no reason except maybe for the colors, and the over the top ornamentalism, and the fact that I generally see one in the weeks coming up to Christmas, if I get to Costa Rica, and I have for at least most of the past 10 years. So, my Christmas bird. I have yet to get my perfect photo of a Quetzal, which keeps me coming back for more. They are predictably active only in the early morning, before the sun works its way down to stream level in the deep Savegre River Valley…Valley of the Quetzals…and there is never enough light to do full justice to the glorious, resplendent, plumage. There are worse ways to celebrate Christmas, so if it becomes a tradition, that’s okay with me. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications (with ISO shutter speed limits reset for the low light). Processed in Photomator and Photo Quality. And a very Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Costa Rica! Crimson-collared Tanager
Crimson-collared Tanager: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — We stopped for the waterfall where the road crosses the La Paz River, but Mirador y Soda Cinchona was our first stop for birds, and it did not disappoint. All the foothills specialties stopped by the Soda’s redesigned deck and gave us such a good show that even the excellent lunch menu had trouble getting us to the table. The was the best look we got the whole trip of the Crimson-collard Tanager…such a vivid and contrasty bird that it is actually quite hard to photograph. 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! Violet
Violet Saberwing: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — The largest of the Central American hummingbirds, common in the foothills and at mid-elevations in the mountains of most of Central America, skipping Guatemala and Nicaragua. This bird, from Costa Rica, is a sub-species of the nominate, common to all of Costa Rica and Western Panama at the right elevations. A stunning bird, as this intimate portrait, taken in the rain, shows. 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! Green-crowned Brilliants drying
Green-crowned Brilliant Hummingbirds: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — It was raining lightly much of the time we were in Cinchona at the Soda, so the hummers were bathing and fluff drying their feathers…providing interesting looks at these otherwise very elegant birds. This is a male and a female Green-crowned Brilliant. We saw the females at other places and at other elevations, but we only found males at Soda Cinchona. 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.
La Paz Waterfall, Costa Rica
One of the best known waterfalls in Costa Rica, mainly because a busy road crosses the foot of the falls on a narrow bridge (just out of frame). The area on either side of the bridge has been colonized by stalls selling tourist merchandise of all kinds, making parking a risky business…as is crossing the narrow bridge with its traffic for alternative views of the falls. This is actually the lower section of the last of 5 major waterfalls just upriver. To see both sections you have to climb a little hill beyond the falls, in which case the bridge is in the way (I have that photo and may share it one day), or you have to stand in the middle of the bridge, which no sane person would do for long…certainly not long enough for anything but a cell phone pic. I do not have that photo. OM Systems OMD E-M5 Mk3 with 12-45mm Pro zoom. In-camera HDR. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! This is my banana!
Prong-billed Barbet: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — There is a story that during the 2009 earthquake that destroyed much of the Cinchona region in Costa Rica, the Soda (shop or cafe) was full of customers. At the first rumble the owner yelled for them all to come to the kitchen, where they watched as the rest of the building collapsed down the mountain side. What we visited on our second day in Costa Rica is the rebuilt Mirador y Soda Cinchona. The Prong-billed Barbet, also a regular visitor to the Soda, does not care. It is all about bananas and their ownership for Barbets. This banana is obviously owned by this Barbet. Barbets exist, not only in the tropics of Central and South America, but also in the tropics of Africa and Asia…some are lowland rainforest birds and some have ranges, like the Prong-billed, in the foothills and even mountains. All have the typical heavy bill and stout body. They are cavity nesters and most excavate holes the same way woodpeckers do. Fun facts from my morning reading on Barbets 🙂 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! Green-crowned Brilliant
Green-crowned Brilliant Hummingbird: Mirador y Soda Cinchona, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Circling back to the first full day of our Costa Rican adventure now, and working our way through day by day — In all his finery! In my opinion, one of the most beautiful hummingbirds…all in subtle shades of brilliant green with that little bright blue chin patch. We had lunch (a first for me) while watching the birds at Mirador y Soda Cinchona…which is certainly one of my favorite stops in Costa Rica. And the food was almost as good as the birds! Never enough light, but still. 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.