Band-tailed Barbthroat
Our guide Edwin’s sharp eyes picked this perched Band-tailed Barbthroat out of the foliage along one of the trails at Selva Verde Lodge in the Sarapiqui river valley of Costa Rica. This little hummer is a member of the Hermit clan, about the same size as the more commonly seen Stripe-throated Hermit, but its much shorter tail makes it look smaller. Barbthroats come to the flowers near the feeders at Selva Verde, along with Stripe-throated Hermits, but this is the first one I have ever seen perched. Early morning under heavy rainforest canopy, threatening rain, so the light was marginal. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Green Honeycreeper
I have extolled the virtues of Dave and Dave’s Costa Rica Nature Park for bird photography already, but these shots demonstrate what is possible there once more. Raining hard but I was dry, and the birds are close. They do put out natural banana rounds to bring the birds in, but that is the only way you are likely to get this close to a Green Honeycreeper. This is the female, and it is the “green” in the name. The male is blue-green at best, and most people would call it blue. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications, plus Multi-frame Noise Reduction. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
As the most common, and most aggressive, hummingbird around feeders at low to mid elevations in Costa Rica, it is way too easy to stop looking at Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds. I mean they are always there. You have already seen dozens, and will see dozens more in the days to come. This one, however, sat so nicely, just off the covered patio at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rica Nature Park, waiting patiently in the rain. I am not sure what it was waiting for, but it returned to this same perch repeatedly in the few hours we spent at Dave and Dave’s. It is a beautiful example of the Amazonia hummers, with its predominantly green iridescence, and, rufous tail and noticeable red base to the bill. Sony Rx10iv at 1200mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications, plus Multi-frame Noise Reduction. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
White-necked Jacobin drinking
Dave and Dave put out fresh flowers each day for the hummers who come to drink, even in the rain. This is a male White-necked Jacobin. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Dave and Dave’s Costa Rica Nature Park, La Vergin, Costa Rica.
Keel-billed Toucan
And yet more birding in the rain. This is an immature Keel-billed Toucan at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rica Nature Park in La Vergin, Costa Rica. I was standing more or less dry under the covered patio at Dave and Dave’s, but the bird was very wet and getting wetter. This is this year’s hatchling so the bill is not as vivid or quite as large as it will get. The Keel-billed Toucan is perhaps the bird people think of first when thinking of tropical American birds, and it is certainly an impressive bird. This year at least, it was easily outnumbered by its larger cousin…the Yellow-throated Toucan. I was pleased to see this one at Dave and Dave’s. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Montezuma’s Oropendola in the rain
This year the Point and Shoot Nature Photography Adventure in Costa Rica got lots of experience photographing birds in the rain. Fortunately Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Pavilion has a covered patio area, surrounded by features to draw birds in, where you can keep yourself, and your cameras, relatively dry. They put out whole bananas to draw the larger rainforest birds, like this Montezuma’s Oropendola, the largest member of the Oriole family. You see colonies of huge hanging, pendulous, Oropendola nests in large trees. Oropendolas prefer free staining trees where the flight lines are open. Shooting in the rain means low light levels and high ISOs. I used Multi-frame Noise Reduction on this shot. Sony Rx10iv at 386mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and MFNR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Red-capped Manakin
One of the more elusive birds at Selva Verde Lodge in the Sarapiqui valley of the Caribbean slope rain forest in Costa Rica, is the Red-capped Manakin. If you sit at the feeding station by the dinning hall long enough, you will see the female come through the background trees and maybe sit in one of the trees at either end of the deck for a brief glimpse as it feeds. If you sit rather longer, you might see the male in one of those two same trees, appearing as if by magic, and disappearing just as quickly. You kind of have to be looking in just the right place at just the right time. That is how it is with Red-capped Manakins at Selve Verde. Getting a photo means getting your camera before it disappears, but it does happen 🙂 Some of the folks in my Point and Shoot Nature Photography group got better photos than this, another day, but I was not there. I am sure, during mating season, there is a lek that can be found, but we are never there during mating season. So, I take what I can get. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications plus Multi-frame Noise Reduction. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Olive-backed Euphonia
We saw the Olive-backed Euphonia in many locations in the Sarapiqui valley. It was among the most common birds of the understory in the rain forest, and in openings everywhere. This individual was foraging deep under the canopy of primary rain forest at La Selva Biological Research Station. Euphonia comes from the latin for something like “sweet sounding” or “sweet voiced”, but I have actually never heard one sing. I am sure they do. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Golden-hooded Tanager
The week we were in Costa Rica with the Point and Shoot Nature Photography Adventure a series of unprecedented storms crossed the US, and as they pushed out into the Atlantic, Central America got the backside of those storms. We spent a lot of time birding and photographing birds in the rain. This is a Golden-hooded Tanager, maybe the third most common tanager of the Caribbean slope rain forest (after the Blue-grey and the Palm), at La Selva Biological Station, one of several research reserves maintained in Costa Rica and elsewhere by the Organization for Tropical Studies. Tropical tanagers are among natures most colorful and most varied species, and are responsible for dispersing the seeds of many rain forest plants. This Golden-hooded is busy doing just that. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Anti-motion Blur mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Yellow-throated Toucan
Even it though it was already the end of a long and satisfying day of birding, our first day with the Point and Shoot Nature Photography Adventure in Costa Rica, with parrots and wrens around the hotel in the morning, hummingbirds at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, and Emerald Toucanets and Black Guans at Soda Y Mirador, I could not resist grabbing my camera as soon as I had dumped my bags in my room at Selva Verde and heading to the feeders at the dinning hall to see what would be there to greet me. Of course it was the Yellow-throated Toucan…the largest of the 6 toucans of Costa Rica, and, in my experience, the easiest to see. This specimen was picking over the banana skins at the feeder and doing duty as the sentinel bird, waiting for the kitchen staff to put out more fruit before the supper rush. I got better Toucan shots later in the trip, but this was the first. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Anti-motion Blur mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.