Monthly Archives: December 2022
Uganda Edition: Northern Double-collared Sunbird
Northern Double-collared Sunbird: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — another bird from around the edges of the parking lot for the Gorilla Trek in Bwindi. Sunbirds are among my favorite African birds and I always have my eye out for them…and often spend way too much time photographing them when they are around. They have the intense colors of hummingbirds…but they sing! The Northern Double-collared has a restricted range along the Albertine Rift in southwest Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi and a larger range in the highlands of Kenya, as well as range in Western Africa. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 and 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper: Danta Cocorvodo Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way for a morning excursion to the observation tower at Danta Corcovado, we happened on a swarm of small army ants crossing one of the trails…two swarm lines actually… one just below my cabin and one further down by the bridge over the stream. It is amazing how many birds, including this Woodcreeper, are specialized ant swarm feeders. For the next few days I will be sharing some of these ant swarm birds. I did a little research this morning to refresh my memory. Army ants are nomadic. They do not build permanent nests like other ants but can stay in a camp or bivouac for up to 20 days, foraging in lines out from the camp and feeding the queen as she broods eggs (up to a million eggs a month so these swarms are huge). The new worker ants reach maturity just as the eggs hatch and the whole swarm has to move on, in order to find enough food to feed the new larvae. That is generally when you see the long lines of ants moving through the forest. If you look carefully you will see that ants are moving in both directions as they carry prey back to feed the larvae and the queen, which are being carried along in the rear of the march. They pretty much kill any living insect or spider, small reptiles and amphibians, even birds, that they encounter (though many army ants can not actually consume the birds they kill)…so they stir up just about everything that is able to get out of their path. A surprising number of birds have specialized in following the ant swarms and feeding on the insects, spiders, an small vertebrates which are exposed as they flee. Some of them have the word “ant” as part of their name, but the Northern Barred-Woodcreeper is rarely seen except when an army ant swarm is passing over an open trail…as one was on that morning at Danta Corcovado. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Terrible light so equivalent ISO of 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Weavers of Bwindi: Strange and Brown-capped
Strange and Brown-capped Weavers: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The Strange Weaver (yes that is its official name) is another Albertine Rift endemic and the Brown-capped Weaver is limited to the Albertine Rift and the highlands of Kenya and maybe Tanzania (eBird shows nothing in Tanzania but the field guide range maps show a small area). There are also isolated populations of Brown -capped Weaver on the west coast of Africa. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator Photo, and Apple Photos. Strange: ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Brown-capped: ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
Scarlet-rumped Tanager
Scarlet-rumped Tanager: Danta Corcovodo Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — The world is a poorer place since they lumped Passerini’s and Cherrie’s Tanagers into Scarlet-Rumped Tanager. I am sure they had good reasons, but still. Passerini’s used to the be the bird on Caribbean slope and Cherrie’s on the south Pacific slope…which includes the Osa Peninsula and the foothills above. Granted, the males, like this one from the roadside almost into Danta Corcovado Lodge, are visually identical, but the females are distinct…distinct enough to make anyone not armed with DNA data suspect that these are different species, especially combined with the clear geographical separation. But no. They are now all just Scarlet-rumped Tanagers. We saw them here in the lowlands, and we saw them in foothills at Wilson Botanical Gardens. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Black-faced Apalis
Black-faced Apalis: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — This used to be the Mountain-masked Apalis, and is another Albertine Rift endemic…restricted in range to the highlands forests of Western Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. It is a very active bird, often found, as we encountered it along the edge of the parking for the Gorilla Trek in Bwindi, in mixed feeding flocks…though typically higher in the canopy than we found it here. Sony Rx10iv at about 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. In the changing light of the understory, ISO 1600 down to ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Bronzed Cowbird
Bronzed Cowbird: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Another bird from the wet field just as you turn toward Danta Corcovado Lodge. There were many Bronzed Cowbirds, a few Shiny Cowbirds, and at least one Giant Cowbird in the field around the cattle. I had only a limited view out the windows on that side as I was sitting on the “wrong” side of the van, but I managed this portrait of a Bronzed on the wire. In other light that iridescence would be more bronze and gives the bird its name. I have seen these birds in Southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and they have a foothold in California and Louisiana. They are occasionally seen along the coast as far as Florida. You can see them almost anywhere in lowland Central America where there are cleared fields and cattle. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.5 @ 1/1000th.
Uganda Edition: Rwenzori Apalis
Rwenzori Apalis: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — This little bird of the thickets under the rainforest canopy is one of the Albertine Rift endemics, only found in a very narrow range in south-western Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Apparently it was the Collared Apalis until recently. There seems to be a move afoot to give the Albertine Rift birds more distinctive names. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Smooth-billed Ani
Smooth-billed Ani: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Also on the way back from our morning excursion to find the Yellow-billed Cotinga, we stopped by a wet field just as you turn off the main road toward the lodge with cattle, Cattle Egrets, and lots of back-birds, including a couple of Smooth-billed Anis. The Anis in Costa Rica are well separated geographically, at least according to the range maps in both field guides to the birds of Costa Rica that I have, with the Grove-billed occupying the larger territory on the Caribbean slope and half way down the Pacific…then maybe somewhat of a gap before the Smooth-bill takes over in the southern lowlands, on the Osa Peninsula and down to the Panama border. The Smooth-billed is predominantly a South American Bird, only reaching up into Central America in the south, while the Groove-billed has a range that covers from South Texas in the US, trough all of Central America, and well down the west coast of South America. However, the ranges on eBird, which rely on field reports, are not so clearly defined, especially on the Osa, where both birds are regularly reported. This does look like a Smooth-billed to me though…with that big crest on the bill. What remains of the tail is too scraggly to see whether it is square or rounded. 🙁 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Streaky Seedeater
Streaky Seedeater: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The sun had not yet reached the ground floor around the parking area for the gorilla trek at Bwindi but it was strong in the treetops, where this Streaky Seedeater was warming itself. The Streaky Seedeater is a common bird of mid to high elevations in openings and along forest edges, from Ethiopia south through most of East Africa. There is a separate race with a yellow wash across the face in Tanzania. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
Roadside Hawk
Roadside Hawk: Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way back from the Rincon River Bridge and our search for the Yellow-billed Cotinga, still before breakfast, we came up on this hawk sitting on the wires by the road. It is, of course, a Roadside Hawk…the most common hawk of the lowland tropical Americas…with a range from the US border (it is occasionally seen in extreme South Texas) to Northern Argentina and Uruguay. Costa Rica has two of the 12 recognized subspecies. This is the one that inhabits southwest Costa Rica and the adjacent Panama. Seeing this bird, so close and so cooperative, only a yards from the windows of our tourist van, we had a brief discussion of what it might be called if there were no roads…or what it might have been called when there were no roads. It is certainly a hawk of the openings and edges, and is, therefore, closely associated with roads, which are often the first openings in any forest where man travels or lives. I said they were all thinking backwards…roads are called roads because that is where you see the Roadside Hawks from. 🙂 (Okay, I know, but remember it was still before breakfast.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. (These photos were actually taken across the width of the van through an open window, so we were indeed pretty close.) Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.