Costa Rican birds, bye-bye!

Posted on July 15, 2014 by petrel41

This video is called Amazing hummingbirds – Costa Rica.

31 March 2014.

After yesterday, today departure from Costa Rica.

To Panama and beyond.

Early in the morning on the bird table: clay-coloured thrush and blue-grey tanager.

Also buff-throated saltator and rufous-collared sparrow.

This video from Colombia is called Buff-throated Saltator, Silver-throated & Lemon-rumped Tanagers.

On our way to the airport: great-tailed grackles.

15:00, Panamanian time: a great-tailed grackle flies past a window at Panama City airport. Like when this journey began; closing the circle.

Bird book about Costa Rica: here.

The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (Second Edition): here.

Birds and beetles in Costa Rica: here.

Great-tailed grackles: here.

SAN JOSE, Jul 26 2016 (IPS) – While Latin America keeps expanding its agricultural frontier by converting large areas of forest, one country, Costa Rica, took a different path and it’s now a role-model for a peaceful coexistence between food production and sustainable forestry: here.

Blue-crowned motmot and white-eared ground sparrows in Costa Rica

Posted on July 14, 2014 by petrel41

This is a video about a blue-crowned motmot; recorded in Alajuela in Costa Rica.

After the Escher art in the botanical garden in Heredia, Costa Rica on 30 March 2014, there were, of course, birds.

First, a black vulture flying overhead.

Then, much closer, a blue-crowned motmot. First, on the lawn just before our feet; then in a nearby bush.

Twenty minutes later, at 11:55, two motmots.

A Hoffmann’s woodpecker.

Hours later, at 16:43, a female Baltimore oriole.

This video is from Costa Rica is about a clay-coloured thrush. Called yigüirro, it is the national bird of Costa Rica. It occurs in this garden as well.

A clay-coloured thrush washed itself in a birdbath.

Then, late in the afternoon, two special birds at another birdbath: white-eared ground sparrows. In Costa Rica, they live only in the Central Valley. Because of their skulking habits, and ‘best seen at near … dusk’, many people don’t see them there.

So, a fine end to our last full day in Costa Rica.

Stay tuned for the blog post on our last Costa Rican early morning, 31 March!

Escher art in Costa Rica

Posted on July 10, 2014 by petrel41

Still 30 March 2014, in the botanical garden of Heredia in Costa Rica. Not just birds in that garden; art as well. This art, based on the woodcut print Metamorphosis III by Dutch artist M.C. Escher, was in one of the garden buildings; a round gazebo.

In Escher’s work, reptile forms slowly morph into other forms.

And bees morph into other insects.

And birds into fish.

And birds into mammals.

Until we were back at the reptiles again.

Baltimore orioles and summer tanagers in Costa Rica

Posted on July 8, 2014 by petrel41

This is a rufous-collared sparrow video. One of the bird species in Santo Domingo de Heredia in Costa Rica. An individual often sang, sitting on top of a bronze stork sculpture in the botanical garden. I fondly remember this species from Quito in Ecuador, a long time ago.

30 March 2014. After yesterday, our second full day in Santo Domingo de Heredia. And our last full day in Costa Rica.

A Montezuma oropendola feeding on a flower in a tree.

In the same tree, a Hoffmann’s woodpecker.

A Finsch’s parakeets flock flies past. These birds live only in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and western Panama.

A rufous-tailed hummingbird.

Male Baltimore orioles; see also here.

And females.

7:35: a white-winged dove.

Five minutes later: a summer tanager male.

There is a summer tanager female as well.

A blue-grey tanager builds its nest.

A buff-throated saltator sings.

An Inca dove.

A rufous-naped wren.

10:38: a variegated squirrel feeding.

10:45 a female great-tailed grackle drinks at a bird bath.

A list of birds in this garden is here.

Stay tuned, as there will be more on birds and other subjects in Costa Rica on 30 March!

[American] Orioles are beautiful and distinctive birds, but they are only instantly recognizable if the region is home to a single oriole species. Many orioles look similar, and it can be more challenging to tell them apart in regions that are native to several of these colorful birds. Learning how to properly identify orioles is essential for birders to feel confident in identifying every oriole they see: here.

Costa Rican botanical garden flowers

Posted on June 28, 2014 by petrel41

In the botanical garden in Heredia in Costa Rica on 29 March 2014, there were of course not only these birds, but also plants and flowers. Like these ones.

And this Bougainvillea. Is it Bougainvillea spectabilis (originally from the Atlantic coast of Brazil, but introduced to many other countries)?

And these Bougainvillea flowers.

The garden is specialized in the original flora of the now densely populated Central Valley of Costa Rica, but there are also South American species. Like this Jabuticaba and its fruits.

Cornstalk dracaena, also present, is originally from Africa. While Thunbergia is originally from Africa and Asia.

There is a flowering Bauhinia purpurea, aka Phanera purpurea tree.

There were orchids as well.

Motmot, orioles and squirrel cuckoo in Costa Rica

Posted on June 28, 2014 by petrel41

Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica 29 March 2014; after our arrival there on 28 March. Many birds in the botanical garden; like this buff-throated saltator.

6:05 in the morning: a blue-grey tanager. They are building a nest here.

A clay-coloured thrush.

A rufous-collared sparrow. I fondly remember this species from Quito in Ecuador; and from earlier this March in Costa Rica.

A great kiskadee in a tree.

This is a great kiskadee video.

Vaux’ swifts fly overhead.

A male Baltimore oriole in a tree.

A rufous-naped wren.

A grey saltator.

A Hoffmann’s woodpecker.

A white-tailed kite flying.

A rufous-capped warbler; and a Tennessee warbler.

A rufous-tailed hummingbird.

A variegated squirrel jumps from one tree to another tree.

A blue-crowned motmot in a tree.

This is a video about a blue-crowned motmot; recorded in Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Soon, two blue-crowned motmots in the tree.

Then, only one again.

An Inca dove on a roof.

A squirrel cuckoo.

A female summer tanager.

A tropical kingbird.

A male and a female orchard oriole.

The male sings.

A rufous-collared sparrow sings from the top of a bronze stork sculpture.

A white-winged dove.

8:52. It is a bit warmer now, which means better conditions for soaring birds. A black vulture circles overhead.

9:40. An orchid bee flying.

9:58. A zebra longwing butterfly.

11:02. A blue-crowned motmot again. It lands on a lawn, then flies back into a bush.

16:10. Dozens of Finsch’s parakeets, flying and calling.

A great-tailed grackle.

White-eared ground sparrows. This is a rare and skulking species. In Costa Rica, it is endemic to the Central Valley.

17:30, half an hour before sunset: red-billed pigeons in a tree.

Costa Rican warbler, parrots and squirrel

Posted on June 26, 2014 by petrel41

Still 28 March 2013 in Costa Rica. After the indigenous people’s museum in San José, we arrived in a beautiful botanical garden in Santo Domingo de Heredia; where this rufous-capped warbler was.

Before we had seen that warbler, at 5pm, we had seen crimson-fronted parakeets flying.

Ten minutes later, a singing clay-coloured thrush.

And a rufous-naped wren.

A variegated squirrel in a tree.

In ponds in the garden live two rare frog species.

Agalychnis annae, the blue-sided tree frog, used to be common in Costa Rica, the only country where it occurs. Now, it is threatened, living only at a few places in the densely populated Central Valley, like here.

This video is about blue-sided tree frogs in a terrarium.

Forrer’s grass frog is another species in this garden.

Costa Rican indigenous people museum

Posted on June 26, 2014 by petrel41

This video is called Costa Rica Central Valley, Time Lapse February 2012, Gary Hoover.

Costa Rica, 28 March 2014. After the mountains and their hummingbirds and other wildlife, we went down to the Central Valley.

At 13:47, in Cartago, a great-tailed grackle.

Then, we went to the capital, San José. A small museum about Costa Rican indigenous people is there.

This video is called Costa Rica Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.

As the video, about a different museum than the one we visited, shows, before the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Costa Rica in the sixteenth century, there were indigenous cultures; in which gold processing played a role.

That gold attracted Spanish invaders. Their violence and diseases they brought with them soon killed most indigenous people.

Today, there are about 100,000 American Indian Costa Ricans.

This video says about itself:

Senior Project: Representations of Indigenous Connection to Land in Costa Rica

14 December 2010

My senior independent project for Global College, LIU.

This is an artistic, visual anthropology representation of indigenous connection to land based on photography and interviews during 6 homestays with Brunka, Terraba, Ngobe, Huetar, Chorotega, and Bribri communities in Costa Rica.

Some indigenous Costa Ricans make art to sell to souvenir shops. However, somewhat like with Australian aboriginal artists, the souvenir shops often don’t pay the American Indian artists fairly.

The shop of the San José museum was established to help correct this. It sells, eg, small sculptures of toucans and other animals.

A problem for Costa Rican indigenous people is oil corporations trying to drive them off their land, museum people told us.

Another threat is invasion by the United States military; supposedly for ‘humanitarian’ purposes (well, United States wars, like in Iraq where over a million civilians died, are officially ‘humanitarian‘ as well).

USAID in Costa Rica: here.

We continued to Santo Domingo de Heredia.

Stay tuned for more Costa Rica blog posts!

Hummingbirds and snake in Costa Rica

Posted on June 25, 2014 by petrel41

This is a fiery-throated hummingbird video.

Still 28 March 2014 in Costa Rica. After the hummingbirds of San Gerardo de Dota, we went to a bit lower part of the mountains.

At 10:30, we stopped at a place with many hummingbirds. Fiery-throated hummingbirds were the species most attracted to the feeders.

Other species: volcano hummingbird.

And magnificent hummingbird; both male and female.

And green violetear. A green violetear photo is here.

There was also a hairy woodpecker, feeding nestlings.

Sooty thrushes were present. We would not see them again, as they are birds of higher mountain levels.

Here, we also saw our only Costa Rican snake: a black-speckled palm-pitviper. A poisonous species, living only in the mountains of Costa Rica and Panama.

Even if you’ve never seen a green violet-ear, you can build one with the LEGO Birds kit – along with a European robin and a blue jay. Not just for kids, these popular construction bricks make surprisingly accurate and fun-to-build birds.

Even small birds can have bad tempers, as any backyard birder who feeds hummingbirds well knows. These tiny birds often have the biggest attitudes, and hummingbird aggression can be entertaining to watch. This hummingbird behavior, however, can be a problem for other hummers at backyard feeders when one aggressive bird may chase many others away from the feeding area: here.

Birding in South Texas: here.