Posts in Category: Costa Rica
Costa Rica! Back for more Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Though I am back from India now and have a lot of photos from India to share, I never finished working through my Costa Rica photos, so I will be posting random second helpings of the Pic for today to finish up that adventure. And what better bird to return to than the Resplendent Quetzal? These again from our second early morning session with the Quetzals. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 and 2000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Resplendent!
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — As I mentioned, you arrive just at first light to wherever you hope to see the Quetzals in the valley around San Geraldo de Dota, and the first birds come when it is still very dark for photos. The longer you wait, the brighter it gets, but the sun never seldom reaches the shelves where the Quetzals are before they finish feeding for the morning. These are two “early” shots, when I was still shooting using multi-frame noise reduction to get any kind of shot at all. Still the colors of the Quetzal can no be surprised! (or surpassed). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th.
Female Resplendent Quetzal
Female Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota: Costa Rica, December 2022 — In any other company, the female Resplendent Quetzal would be a brilliant bird…as it is, the male is over-the-top brilliant and puts her a bit in the shade. These shots are from the “more secret” of the Quetzal locations in the valley in December…a bit harder to get to, and a bit more exclusive (and you have to pay)…but generally an excellent Quetzal show. When we visited both the male and female were showing well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. You have to get to the spot at first light, so it is never bright enough. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/200th and 1/400th.
Flowerpiercer piercing
Slaty Flowerpiercer: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — And here is where the Flowerpiercer gets it’s name. 🙂 This is the male by the way. The female is lighter in color. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Slaty Flowerpiercer
Slaty Flowerpiercer: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We had a close encounter with a Slaty Flowerpiercer who was working the plants along Miriam’s back deck in the noon-day mountain sun. The flowerpiercer is so named because it uses its sharp hooked beak to make a small hole at the base of showy flowers to sip the nectar. I have actually seem Mountain Gem Hummingbirds feeding from the holes it leaves behind. It is a plain little bird…slaty…but in good light you can see the abundance of fine feather detail. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 125 and 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Return to the Emerald Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We return to images from my trip to Costa Rica last December and to the Emerald Toucanet…one of the highlights of our lunch stop at Miriam’s Quetzals up the mountain from our lodge. With birds like this off the back deck…who needs food! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Emerald Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We all jumped up from our delicious lunches at Miriams when this Emerald Toucanet visited the feeders out back. The feeder pole is about 12 feet from the deck rail, so this was a real treat. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica — The Acorn Woodpecker is a common woodpecker of the western regions of North America, all through Central America, and down into the north west corner of South America. It is found a higher and higher elevations the further south you go. As you might guess from the name it is closely associated with mixed oak forest and is famous for two things…stashing acorns in telephone poles and tree trunks, and drilling holes in house siding and shingles. They are always active around Miriam’s feeders. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
Flame-colored Tanager
Flame-colored Tanager: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — After a few hours on the Paramo, we headed back for lunch at Miriam’s. There was birding time between ordering and eating, and of course we spent it on her back deck. These female and male Flame-colored Tanagers posed nicely in the mid-day light. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Volcano Junco
Volcano Junco: Cerro de la Muerte, Costa Rica, December 2022 — And this, for a birder, is why you drive up the road to the antenna station at the top of Bueno Vista mountain and get out at 11,400 feet in whatever weather the day provides and walk around the roads through the paramo. The Volcano Junco is a regular around the lower buildings at the station. We worked harder for this one than for most…generally they are on the ground behind the buildings in plain sight. This was one of several skulking deeper in the brush and only coming out to the road about when were ready to give up. Still it gave us great views. Of the other birds of the paramo, the Volcano Hummingbird and the Timberline Wren, we got the hummer and dipped on the wren (that makes two years in a row we have missed the wren). I have only ever seen the Peg-billed Finch once there. Still, it is always good to see the Volcano Junco, a bird that is restricted in range to the tops of the highest mountains in Costa Rica, and can be seen nowhere else in the world. Sony Rx10iv at 517mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th. (I have heard at least 3 different stories as to why the mountain is called Cerro de la Muerte…mountain of death…but none of them are particularly convincing…certainly on a clear day Bueno Vista is a better name.)