Green Honeycreeper: Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary, Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, December 2021 — We left Las Cruces Biological Research Station and headed up toward our high elevation stop at San Gerardo de Dota in the Savegre Valley, with packed lunches which we intended to eat at the home of Alexander Skutch, perhaps the best known ornithologist of his time due to his many books on birds and tropical ecology. Skutch was among the first to closely relate birds to the habitat they frequented, and to study the effect that even minor changes in habitat have on the birds. After his death, his home in Costa Rica was preserved as a avian sanctuary and a memorial to his life and work. This Green Honeycreeper was there to greet us in the extensive natural gardens. This is, despite not looking much like one, a tanager…honeycreepers are a small sub-division of the colorful tropical tanagers specialized for fruit eating. It is the female that is actually green, while the male, as you see, is more turquoise, but so distinctive as to be unmistakable. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.