Spotted Wood-Quail: Batsu Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica — not an easy bird to see since they forage in pairs or small groups in the interior undergrowth of high mountain forests in Costa Rica and Panama, and are generally very quiet. There is a small covey near Batsu Gardens at about 8000 feet, above the Savegre River valley, that have been coming out to some scattered corn and rice for a few years now…generally just once a day, and generally late in the day. You have to be there at the right time. As it happened, when we visited San Gerardo de Dota on our first trip to Costa Rica last December, two were foraging when we got out of the 4 wheel drive van that takes you up the mountain to the gardens. They were there for maybe 5 minutes, but long enough to get a few photos. We did not see them a week later when we visited Batsu with my second group. I will post more about Batsu Gardens in the next couple of days. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Interestingly, eBird incorrectly lists this bird as “lowlands and foothills”, but it is definitely a bird of the higher elevation forests.