Posts in Category: Osa Peninsula
Magnificent Frigatebird
Magnificent Frigatebird: Playa Blanca, Costa Rica (Osa Peninsula) — One afternoon late, we drove out to Playa Blanca, a beach on the Gulf of Deluce near Danta Corcovado Lodge, to look for Macaws. While we were looking, I grabbed this shot of one of the many Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring over the Gulf in the evening light. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th.
Smooth-billed Ani
Smooth-billed Ani: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Anis are strange birds…members of the Cuckoo family, though you might not guess that…with floppy long tails and that massive beak. I have seen Grove-billed Anis in Costa Rica before, in flocks and on fence wires along the road, but you have to go to the Pacific Lowlands to see the Smooth-billed. This one was well out in an overgrown pasture and I had to crop heavily and enlarge even with my full zoom. Sony Rx10ivat 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Spectacled Owl chick
Spectacled Owl: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula Costa Rica — I shared one photo of this immature Spectacled Owl, just coming into adult plumage, when we first saw it in December, but it deserves more attention. Edwin, our guide to all things Costa Rican, managed to spot it deep back in the dense rainforest, well off the trail. Finding a line of sight was not easy, but it is such a good bird. Spectacled Owls roost out in daylight, and are among the most likely owls to see in Costa Rica, but still, a great find on Edwin’s part. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 and 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Purple-crowned Fairy
Purple-crowned Fairy (female): Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Not as spectacular as the male, of course, but we were happy to find this lone Purple-crowned Fairy just at the edge of the Danta Corcovado Lodge grounds as took a short hike down the entrance road. The Fairy is a lowland hummer, common on both the Caribbean and Pacific slopes. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
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.