Scarlet-rumped Tanager: Mirador El Pizote, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica, December 2024 — There used to be two tanagers in Costa Rica with red rumps…the Passerini’s and the Cherries, one basically on the caribbean side and one on the pacific. This would have been the Passerini’s. They were recently lumped into a single species…the Scarlet-rumped. The males were never really distinguishable, and the females differed only enough to notice if you had the two side by side. The Passerini’s name is still out there, and still in use by some authorities. We will go with Scarlet-rumped. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 Di iii @ 600mm equivalent. Program mode with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. Though it is a common bird, these are somewhat rare shots in that you can see the feather detail in the black…the light was just right.
Carolina Wren: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2025 — Yesterday we woke to six inches of snow in the yard, like most people in Southern Maine (some had more) and after clearing the drive and cleaning off the car and removing the snow from the shed roof I went looking for birds. We see these two wrens about once a week up on our back deck after the spilled meal-worm crumbs, and occasionally on the meal-worm feeder itself after a whole worm, and I know they spend considerable time under our deck, in the jumble of old flowerpots that have accumulated there. I think they actually nest a few yards over but they visit us. We see them often in the summer and I know they have been recorded on the Christmas Bird counts in Southern Maine, but this is the first winter when we have seen them regularly. I am always happy to see them. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 Di iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.