Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer: Donde Cope, Gaupiles, Costa Rica — The Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer is one of the most distinctive hummingbirds of the tropics and the lowland rain forest of the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica in particular. It is the only hummingbird in Costa Rica with red feet. In fact the Costa Rican Plumeleteer is considered a sub-species, often called the “Red-footed Plumeleteer” and has a black tail rather than the bronze tail observed in the rest of its range from Honduras all along the Caribbean slope of Central America, and down in South America as far as Ecuador. It is not a common bird even within its range. We generally see it at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Pavilion in La Virgin, at the heliconias there, and we did get glimpses during our visit there, but these most cooperative specimens are from Cope’s tiny wildlife sanctuary around his home in Gaupiles. Sony Rx10iv at 509 plus equivalent. It is always dark under bamboo forest at Cope’s so these were taken in Program mode with multi-frame noise reduction. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/160th and 1/400th. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.

Blue-throated Goldentail: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — the Blue-throated Goldentail is listed in most guides as common in the lowlands and foothills of the Pacific Slope of Costa Rica, and it does not get much lower than Danta Corcovado Lodge on the Osa Peninsula (though we were on a hill when we saw it). It is apparently less common, but present, in the Caribbean lowlands, but I have never seen it there. These photos might be rated “high” in level of difficulty. We were on an observation tower maybe 30 feet high, and the hummer was working flowers at the base of the tower. This is stretching the 600mm zoom on the Sony Rx10iv to its max, using Pixomator Photo’s Machine Learning Maximum Resolution to enlarge a severe crop of the image to what might amount to about 3000mm equivalent. Even with enlargement these are only 4mp images. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Snowy-bellied Hummingbird: Wilson Botanical Gardens, Las Cruces Biological Station OTS, Costa Rica — I am back from 19 days in Costa Rica. I will post a catch-up gallery in the next day or so. Today’s photo is of a Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, a hummer I have only had glimpses of before higher in the mountains of Costa Rica. The Wilson Botanical Gardens are only at “mid-level”…about 4000 feet in elevation…so I was surprised to see the hummer prominently featured on signage at the gardens, and delighted that our guide to the gardens was able to find us one. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.