Daily Archives: December 5, 2019

Slaty Flowerpiercer

It was a travel day today, from Selva Verde Lodge in the lowland rain-forest to Savegre Lodge in the Talamanca Mountains. Still we arrived in the highlands in time to make a stop at Miriam’s Quetzels…a small coffee shop on the mountainside with a Quetzel tree out back…and feeders for when the Quetzels are elseware…as in today. We did have a number of great birds around the feeders, including this Slaty Flowerpiercer. You can see in this shot were the bird gets its name. They feed from the bottom of blossoms by poking a hole in the base and extracting nectar and insects. This bird was busy only about 4 feet from the deck. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Yellow-throated Toucan

The largest toucan in Costa Rica is the Yellow-throated Toucan, and it is common at the feeders here at Selva Verde Lodge in the Sarapique River valley (and everywhere else we have been in the the valley rain forest). It used to be the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, and, before that, the Black-mandibled Toucan. It is big and noisy and hard to miss! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications, plus auto ISO with multi-frame-noise reduction. Processed in Polarr.