Double-toothed Kite antics
Double-toothed Kite: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — More of the Double-toothed Kite from the observation tower at Danta Corcovado Lodge. Here the bird is showing its signature ruff of tail coverts…sometimes also seen in flight. The bird was a bit close in these shots, but still with that harsh direct light from the rising sun. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th
Double-toothed Kite
Double-toothed Kite: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — While we were on the canopy tower at Danta Corcovado Lodge shortly after sun-rise, this Double-toothed Kite came to visit. It sat on a tree well away from the tower, in the strong direct, somewhat harsh, light of the level sun just over the horizon. These shots are heavily cropped and enlarged to get the bird this big in the frame, as well as some extra processing to deal with the harsh light. The Double-toothed Kite has a extended range all through the lowlands of Central America, the Amazon basin, and the Atlantic coast of Brazil, around the horn from the Amazon’s mouth…where it hunts for mostly insects and small herps. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5 @ 1/1000th.
Blue-throated Goldentail Hummingbird
Pic for today: Blue-throated Goldentail Hummingbird: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — After sunrise on the Canopy Tower at Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula, we had a visit from a Blue-throated Goldentail. It was working the flowers at the base of the tower, so these shots are from 50 or 50 feet above and behind the bird…at or beyond the limits of my 600mm equivalent lens. The very definition of “wee and far” 🙂 Still a beautiful bird and a treat to see. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Red-lored Parrot
Red-lored Parrot: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Danta Corcovado Lodge has an observation tower, or canopy tower, on a hill about a mile from the lodge. The tower gets you high enough to see out over a large expanse of canopy across a small valley and up on the hill across. If you turn around you have a view out over a well grazed pasture hill to the tree line several miles away. We went out at sunset one day and sunrise another. Just after sunrise, these Red-lored Parrots settled in a tall tree well away from the tower, just within reach of my 600mm lens (the photos have been cropped to maybe the equivalent of a 3000mm lens…spotting scope territory). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Orange-collared Manakin
Orange-collared Manakin: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Manakins are strange little birds. Round bodied with mostly short tails, and not much neck at all…as though someone stuck a beak and feet on ball. There are 9 species of Manakins in Costa Rica, 2 of which can only be found in the Pacific lowlands and foothills of Costa Rica and adjacent Panama. Danta Corcovado Lodge is and extreme example of an “open plan” lodge. Both the bar and dinning area and the reception and lounge area are very elegant, though rustic sheds, roofed but without walls. The photo shows the dinning area. Between the dinning and the lounge sheds there is a strip of tall dense bamboo. In the morning when we went for breakfast just at dawn (the photo is at lunch time), that strip was very dark, and there were always birds in there, tempting us, and testing the low light limits of our cameras. This male Yellow-collared Manakin was there to entertain us one morning as we ate…or attempted to eat while watching and photographing the bird. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/100th and 1/30th.
Red-eyed Leaf Frog
Red-eyed Leaf Frog: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — I posted a comparison post a while back now, featuring the different varieties of the Red-eyed Leaf Frog found we found at Selva Verde Lodge in the Sarapique River Valley in the Caribbean lowlands, and the Red-eyed Leaf Frogs we found at Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula in the Pacific lowlands. There are 5 species of Leaf Frog found in Costa Rica, but there are apparently at least 5 distinct color variations of the Red-eyed Leaf Frog. The one you see almost exclusively in photos, with orange feet and bright blue flank bars, is the variety we found on the Caribbean slope. This one on the Osa Peninsula, with greeny-grey feet and almost black and white flank bars, is “variety A” (according to my field guide). I find it interesting that I could only find a single reference to the color variations in the Red-eyed Leaf Frog in a google search, and that was in a scientific paper on variations in defense peptides in the skins of the species. All of the more accessible internet sources, from Wikipedia to National Geographic, picture and describe only the orange-footed variety. I can be forgiven then, for thinking, for a moment there, that this might be a separate species. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Taken by the light of a flashlight. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Fitzinger’s Rain Frog (Robber Frog?)
I think this is a Fitzinger’s Rain Frog, aka Fitzinger’s Robber Frog. Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Rain Frogs, often also called Robber Frogs, are common all over Costa Rica. Pinning down the exact species is best left to those who really know their amphibians…which is not me. This was the first critter we encountered on our “night walk” our second night at Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula. Taken by the light of a flashlight, using multi-frame noise reduction on the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Ringed Kingfisher
Ringed Kingfisher: Rio Rincon near the Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — After I mistakenly named a distant Amazon Kingfisher as a Ringed last week in a post, I had to do some serious study of these photos to make sure I have the right name this time. This bird was closer, and at eye-level, but buried back under the shade of the foliage above it, and silhouetted against the brighter foliage behind it. We were well back toward the lodge on our way back down the Rincon river-bed from our visit to Corcovado National Park. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 124 and 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Yellow-headed Caracara
Yellow-headed Caracara: Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — This bird was in terrible light, and I was shooting from the moving wagon on the way back down Rio Rincon coming out of Corcovado National Park, so no time to adjust. Still it is not a bad shot after some work in post-processing. At least a good portrait of the bird. Yellow-headed Caracara is increasing its range in Costa Rica, but it was always common in both the Pacific and Caribbean lowlands. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo, Apple Photos, and Polarr. ISO 100 @ f8 @ 1/1000th.
Short-tailed Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk: Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — I am pretty sure this is a Short-tailed Hawk. I don’t remember what Edwin, our the guide called it, and it was overhead for just a few seconds, as we aboard the wagon for the trip back down the Rio Rincon after our short hike in the forests of Corcovado National Park. Not great photos but the best I could manage under the circumstances. So, more about the bird this morning, than the photo. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and f4 @ 1/1000th and 1/640th. The second shot at + .7 EV.