Talamanca Hummingbird: Paraiso Quetzal Lodge, Costa Rica, March 2025 — Taking a break from our southern Maine backyard birds for a few days (unless something spectacular appears outside my window). This is one of my favorite hummingbirds from one of my favorite places to photograph hummingbirds. The Talamanca Hummingbird is the largest in Costa Rica and one of the largest in the world. It used to be the Magnificent Hummingbird until they decided that the birds of the mountains of Central America and the Mountains of Mexico and the Southwest US were distinct species and needed separate names. (Our Magnificent is now the Rivoli’s Hummingbird…but that won’t last long as they are doing away with all “honorific names”.) At any rate, whatever they call it, this is a large, bright, often aggressive, hummer of the highlands, with vivid colors from its gorget to its cap to its breast and flanks. Magnificent was a fully appropriate name. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.