Posts in Category: San Gerardo de Dota
A different angle on a Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — It is remotely possible that you could get tired of seeing photos of the Resplendent Quetzal before I am finished posting them. 🙂 We were about to get back on the bus when this gentleman flew into a tree right over our heads. There were very few windows with a line of sight and no obscuring foliage, but I managed this shot and I pretty happy with it. This is certainly as close as I have been to the Resplendent Quetzal! Sony Rx10iv at 567mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Quetzal in the sun!
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — In at least 8 trips to San Geraldo de Dota in search of Quetzals, I have only see one in the sun twice…and neither time was an ideal shot. The first time the bird was partially obscured by foliage, and this time he simply would not look down at me. So it goes. It just gives me a reason to return. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 561mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Resplendent Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — To see the Resplendent Quetzal you get up well before dawn and drive to whatever wild avocado tree is in fruit at the moment. Everyone in the valley knows which trees are in fruit today, and where the Quetzals are, since, in large part, it is these birds that bring the tourists who keep the valley prosperous. I should say that there are wild avocado trees all up and down the valley. Most are deep in the forest, but a few are accessible from the road for with a short, manageable, climb up or down from the road. And each tree has its own unique fruiting season…they do not fruit all at once…generally just one or two trees at a time. December is good month to find and photograph Quetzals in San Gerardo de Dota because a few of the fruiting trees are close to the road. Once you reach the tree, you climb out of the bus, do your little climb as needed, and stand with 30 to 50 others who have braved the dawn for the Quetzal, and wait. Among the group are several guides who live in the valley and are there, wherever the Quetzals are, every dawn. These folks are the most likely to see the birds first as they know the habits and behaviors of the moment. When the first Quetzal comes in, often before full light…often well before there is really enough light for photography…the whole group shifts like a folk of starlings in flight to reform where there is a view. With patience, as the sun rises higher and crests the high ridges to the east of the valley, and the light improves, the Quetzals will come to a tree out in the open for fruit, generally taking one in flight. They then perch, hopefully on a branch where they can be seen, and sit a while before swallowing the fruit whole, and then while they begin digestion. They will sit there for anything from a few moments to a quarter of an hour, before returning to the tree to feed. And all the time the light is improving and the crowd of tourists is thinning, as the non-photographers have seen their Quetzal and breakfast and coffee is waiting at the lodge. Only a few hardy souls wait for the sun to get above the tall mountains and light to flood the valley. Occasionally the Quetzals will still there there, and that is when the good photos happen. 🙂 Eventually the Quetzals have their fill and fly off deeper into the forest to find another tree, but generally even the most dedicated photographers are back at the lodge for breakfast by then. Sony Rx10iv at 543mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV.
Large-footed Finch
Large-footed Finch: Miriam’s Quetzels Restaurant, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Not the most exciting bird in the world, but another mountain speciality…hugging the area from cloud forest up to tree-line. It’s behavior is very like our North American Robin…scratching for invertebrates in the grass and leaf litter. And, yes, it does have large feet! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
White-treated Mountain-Gem
White-throated Mountain-Gem: Miriam’s Quetzals Restaurant, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — The White-throated Mountain-Gem is, in my experience, the Gem found at the highest elevations in Costa Rica. I had only seen the Purple-throated in the high foothills, and, if memory serves, I have never seen the White-bellied. I have seen way more female White-throated Mountain-Gems than males, so it was nice to see this one off the deck at Miriams on our first stop there. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher (and Baltimore Oriole)
Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher (and Baltimore Oriole): Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — The Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher is not, in fact, a flycatcher, but it does have a long tail. Here in the US, we also have a silky-flycatcher, the Phanopepla of the South West deserts. And, of course, the Baltimore Oriole keeping company with the Silky-flycatcher is a common summer bird all up our east coast. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. The birds were not close, and the “close-up” is a heavy crop. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Yellow-thighed Bushfinch
Yellow-thighed Bushfinch: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — There are generally a few Yellow-thighed Bushfinches around the feeders at Miriams, and they are always a treat to see. Such an unlikely bird! The sooty-black, fine textured plumage and then those bright yellow booties. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Flame-colored Tanager
Flame-colored Tanager: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Though the Flame-colored Tanager does come down to foothills level, I have never seen one except high in the Talamanca Mountains. In fact, it is first bird I generally see that I think of as unmistakably a mountain bird. Though they feed in the mid to upper canopy, they do come to feeders, especially on the mountain side where the feeders are already at canopy level for the trees downslope. In my experience they are also quite variable in color, from palish orange to deep orange. Both of these birds are males, and both were coming to the feeders at Miriams, so this is not a “trick of the light.” They were different color orange. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 1000 (paler bird in the shadows) and 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Lesser Violet-eared Hummingbird
Lesser Violet-eared Hummingbird: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Another hummingbird we got our first looks at off Miriam’s back deck. The Lesser Violet-ear (and, before you ask, there is on “Greater” Violet-ear…maybe they are anticipating a possible split??) is one of the most common, and certainly one of the most aggressive, hummingbirds in the American tropics, and can be found from Rainforest to Cloud Forest and everywhere in between. A gorgeous bird wherever it is found. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 and 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Talamanca Hummingbird
Talamanca Hummingbird: Miriam’s Quetzals Restaurant, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We left Los Cosningos after lunch and had time for a coffee, hot coco, and birds stop at Miriam’s Quetzals on the way down into San Geraldo de Dota and the Trogon Lodge. Miriam’s perches high on the side of the Savegre Valley and the feeders she maintains off the deck on the back of her restaurant generally provide our first views of some of the mountain specialties. Trouble is, once you are there, and have your cup of excellent coffee or coco, it is hard to get away, and you do not want to be late for your first trout dinner at the Trogon either. The Talamanca Hummingbirds were so bold they came to sit within inches of those who got too close to the feeders. One of the larger hummingbirds…the largest in Central America, it is always impressive, and never more so than when the late afternoon light catches the gorget. Such a treat! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 2000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.