Posts in Category: Sarapiqui

Glass Frog

Fleischmann’s Glass-Frog (I think): Frog Heaven, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — I asked our guide at Frog Heaven to find me a glass frog. Glass frogs are a family of frogs with semi-transparent skins so that you can actually see the organs inside. He came back with the smallest, tiniest glass frog I have ever see. Cute. This guy was less than 1/2 inch tall. The best I can do on an id is Fleischmann’s…which is likely as they are pretty common in Costa Rica. Just generally much bigger. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 120mm equivalent. Aperture preferred program (my macro modifications) at f16, -2.7EV, ISO 25600 at 1/15th. In the light of my Ulanzi Photo Flashlight. Tripod. Processed in Photomator.

Green in the night

Green Basilisk: Frog Heaven, Sarapique, Costa Rica, December 2024 — I posted some daylight photos (if you call under deep canopy in the rain, daylight) a while back…but this was a much larger and more mature individual we found at Frog Heaven on our night walk. Taken by the light of my Ulanzi Photo Flashlight. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 88 and 600mm equivalents. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. -1.3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Photomator.

Scarlet

Scarlet Macaw: Pierella Ecology Garden, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — Scarlet, and yellow, and blue…with some pink in there around the eye. There are not many more colorful, or more intensely colored, birds than the Scarlet Macaw. When we had finished with the Great Green Macaws, a guide called us back to the same trees to see a small flock of Scarlets feeding. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Great Green

Great Green Macaw: Pierella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — I have seen Great Green Macaws before in Costa Rica…though they are still rare after years of effort to reestablish a viable population in what was once their native range, but I have never seen them this close in the wild. A small flock settled in a Mountain Almond tree right at the entrance to Pierella Gardens and one of the guides alerted us all to their presence. What a treat. We watched them feeing actively for close to a half hour, before they moved on. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Tenters

Brown Tent-making Bats: Pierella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — I have seen the White Honduran Tent-making Bats several times in Costa Rica…on just about every trip for the past 10 years…but this was my first encounter with their brown cousins. Both are leaf-nosed bats, and both eat away at the spine of broad leaves until the leaves fold over to make a “tent” where they roost during daylight. It is not easy to get a photo as you have to get down low enough to see up under the leaves and use a flashlight for light. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 217mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. This is another shot at ISO 25600. 🙂

Daylight Frog

Red-eyed Leaf Frog: Pierella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — This is my first ever daylight shot of a Red-eyed Leaf Frog. If you can call a rainy day under the rainforest canopy daylight. 🙂 Our guide found the frog for us, and moved it to this little twig for photos…so, I do feel that it was cheating a bit…but I sill like the image…and love the critter. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 250mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. (ISO 25600! Even in daylight I could have used more light.) Processed in Photomator.

Green on green

Green Basilisk: Pierella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — Not an uncommon lizard of the rainforest, but an uncommonly close view of one, and a daylight view at that. Our guide at Pierella found it for us while looking for Red-eyed Leaf Frogs in a damp spot in the forest. This is the Jesus lizard, so called because it appears to walk on the water…or run at least…it’s specially adapted feet and light weight not breaking the surface tension. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 477 and 231mm equivalents. (Like I said, a close view. :} Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Red-throat

Crested Guan: Pierrella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — Pierrella Ecology Gardens is the public facing effort of a family owned commercial butterfly farm. They raise and ship tropical rainforest cocoons to butterfly gardens and research centers all over the world. Most of the cocoons are raised right in the forest, in mobile enclosures, so the heath of the forest is essential, and a healthy forest attracts a wide variety of all kinds of interesting birds, frogs, lizards, mammals, and other insects. All of which makes a tour of the gardens a special treat. This is the Crested Guan, a near threatened species similar in size and habits to the North American wild turkey (at least a hen turkey). The bright red waddle really sets of the speckled black plumage. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600 and 382mm equivalents. Program mode with my custom bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Costa Rica! Yellow is the color

Yellow-throated Toucan: Tico Rainforest B&B, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — One of the most recognizable birds of the American Tropics, the Yellow-throated Toucan has a wide range, when including its nominate and 2 sub-species, all down through the lowland rainforests of Central America and along the north-west rim of South America from eastern Venezuela to southern Peru. It is still listed as “near threatened” by the IOU. No one actually knows how it is doing within its range…but there is a lot of deforestation going on throughout, and it is assumed numbers are declining. Big, bold, loud and just a little clumsy around feeders, it is one of those birds that you see in the air or perched and think, “How is that possible?” For one thing that huge beak is a thin, hollow shell, and weighs very little compared to the mass of the bird. Always a delight to see. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 Di iii @ 600 and 515mm equivalents. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Costa Rica! Showing some scarlet

Scarlet-rumpled Cacique: Tico Rainforest B&B, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, December 2024 — In my experience it is rare to see any red at all on the rump of the Scarlet-rumped Cacique…they mostly keep it well hidden under the tips of the wings. To be fair though I have not seen many…they were occasional visitors to Selve Verde where I have stayed in the Sarapiqui in the past…they were daily, hourly visitors at Victor’s place. I am told that Cacique means chief in native caribbean languages, and it has come to mean “boss” (as in party boss or gang boss or mob boss) in much of Latin America. And like most in the blackbird family, the Scarlet-rumped Cacique is very much the boss of the feeders when it comes around. Sony a6700 with Tamron 50-400 Di iii @ 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.