Velvety Manakin: Los Cosingos Sanctuary, Costa Rica, December 2022 — A very difficult bird to photograph…deep in the tangle of the rainforest understory…but the only male Velvety we saw on our trip. There was a nice green female showing at the Wilson Botanical Gardens. This is a confusing bird to me. There was once a Blue-Crowned Manakin that had a range in both Central America and South America. There is now a Velvety Manakin with a range primarily in Central America, Columbia, and northern Ecuador and a Blue-capped Manakin with a range in the rest of Amazonian South America. 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 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Bay-headed Tanager: Los Cosingos Sanctuary, Costa Rica, December 2022 — When we moved on from Las Cruces Biological Research Station, headed for San Gerardo de Dota in the Talamanca Mountains, we stopped for a biding lunch at Los Cosginos Bird Sanctuary, which is the Alexander Skutch homestead. Skutch is perhaps the best know tropical naturalist of recent generations, with many influential books and studies to is credit. When he passed away his homestead was set aside, and is operated as sanctuary for the birds he loved. This Bay-headed Tanager came for bananas put out on stump near the Skutch house, which is maintained as a kind of museum to his work. It is mount the most colorful of the many colorful neo-tropical tanager species. Here it just about shines in the direct sun. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Streak-headed Woodcreeper: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — There are 15 Woodcreeper species in Costa Rica, 8 of which are at least possible in the low foothills at the Alexander Skutch homestead. This is the most commonly seen at forest edges…the Streak-headed which I found working the trees in the gardens around the the Skutch house and museum. Sony Rx10iv at 534mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Bay-headed Tanager: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — Here is another bird that did not want to come out of the foliage, but such a wonderful bird! The Bay-headed Tanager is among the most colorful of a colorful group of tropical birds. It is not an uncommon bird from the foothills to mid-elevations on either slope…but this bird at the home of Alaxander Skutch was my first. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Red-headed Barbet: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — Though I have seen the Red-headed Barbet in the foothills on the Caribbean side, that was several years ago now, and we have not found another…until this last trip in December when we had glimpses of this female at Alexander Skutch’s home in the foothills of the Pacific slope. Glimpses in heavy foliage. Still a great bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 and 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Blue-crowned and White-ruffed Manakins: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — As well as an amazing number of Parrot species, between the two trips last December we had 5 of the 8 possible Manakins possible in Costa Rica. Numbers four and five were at the home of Alexander Skutch. Both were too far and very uncooperative as far as photos went, but I managed these (with the help of considerable enlargement in post-processing). The Blue-crowned Manakin is restricted to the lowlands and foothills of the south Pacific slope, and the White-ruffed is restricted to the foothills of both the Pacific and Caribbean slopes. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Blue-crowned ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th, White-ruffed ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Green Honeycreeper: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — We left Las Cruces Biological Research Station and headed up toward our high elevation stop at San Gerardo de Dota in the Savegre Valley, with packed lunches which we intended to eat at the home of Alexander Skutch, perhaps the best known ornithologist of his time due to his many books on birds and tropical ecology. Skutch was among the first to closely relate birds to the habitat they frequented, and to study the effect that even minor changes in habitat have on the birds. After his death, his home in Costa Rica was preserved as a avian sanctuary and a memorial to his life and work. This Green Honeycreeper was there to greet us in the extensive natural gardens. This is, despite not looking much like one, a tanager…honeycreepers are a small sub-division of the colorful tropical tanagers specialized for fruit eating. It is the female that is actually green, while the male, as you see, is more turquoise, but so distinctive as to be unmistakable. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.