I arose just before Howler O’clock and went and stood
outside and listened to the sound of Clay Coloured Thrushes welcoming in the day
with the monkey backdrop. I wandered the ground as the light crept in flushing
a Black-faced Antthrush from the path side that flew off low like some weird
Rail. Two Chestnut Backed Antbirds called and I saw one fossicking around the
base of a tree while the noise of the incessant Cicadas tried to drown out
everything else.
As the light improved the Grey Chested Doves started to sing
and I saw one briefly and the expected selection of Parrots and Parakeets moved
out from their roost for breakfast.
The Grey-capped Flycatchers, Kiskadees and Bright-rumped
Attilas were all getting going and an American Redstart dashed about in acrobatic
style flashing those yellow tail patches while two Northern Waterthrushes
tiptoed around the herb beds.
The bird breakfast bar held yesterday’s compliment of species
although one of the male Red-throated Ant Tanagers did come in briefly and the
Collared Aracaris made short work of the scraps of fruit left behind. They are
surprisingly dextrous with that oversized bill.
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| Red-throated Ant Tanager |
After breakfast we headed straight for La Selva to walk the
approach road before the site opened. It started in fine style with two
glorious Chestnut Coloured Woodpeckers with their blond crowns and red cheeks
high in the canopy. Birding here is never about taking pictures. The birds move fast and are often high up or
obscured. You have to react quick and often piece together what you are seeing
to create the whole. That is not saying that some birds didn’t perform for us
and it was actually some of the most rewarding and intense birding that we did.
A perched up raptor resolved itself into an immature Double
Toothed Kite and the rest of the walk down produced a Scarlet-rumped Cacique leaving
its pendulous nest strung on a telephone wire and a female Snowy Cotinga
looking grey against the skyline from her bare perch. Red-throated Ant Tanagers
crashed about the undergrowth and Black-faced Grosbeaks sneezed like oversized
Marsh Tits as they too moved through in a gang.
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| Scarlet-rumped Cacique nest |
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Red-throated Ant Tanager
|
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| female Snowy Cotinga |
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| Black-faced Grosbeak |
A Bronzy Hermit was briefly on the gateway Heliconias and we
soon heard our first Great Green Macaws and saw them pass over. The next duo then surprised us by coming down
to briefly feed in a fairly low tree that allowed us all to get some close
views of this huge parrot. There were smiles all round. A Plain Brown
Woodcreeper showed well allowing the rest of the party to add this to their
lists and some Mealy Parrots perched up in the adjacent trees.
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| Great Green Macaw |
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| Great Green Macaws |
Another patch of birds just before the security booth added
both Toucans and another annoyingly invisible Rufous Browed Pepper-shrike – I
had still to ever see one at this point.
After checking in and sanitizing we were about to set off on our first
walk when I found a pair of Shining Honeycreepers feeding on tiny berries near
the Centre. It had started to rain lightly and the duller light made them even
brighter in my eyes. They were to be one of the birds of the trip for me. An
Olive-backed Euphonia was feeding in the same bush with a couple of Variable
Seedeaters and Rufous Tailed Hummingbirds and Stripe-throated Hermits dashed
around us.
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| Yellow-throated Toucan |
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| Olive-backed Euphonia |
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| Rufous Tailed Hummingbird |
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| Golden Hooded Tanager |
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| Shining Honeycreepers |
An obliging Rufous winged Woodpecker poked around the garden
trees too and a Rufous Tailed HB nest was found in mid construction – such a
tiny creation. Our troop quietly walked the trails and although the birding was
difficult it was rewarding with superb views of a troop of Purple-throated
Fruitcrows with Rufous Motmots in the foreground, Rufous Tailed Jacamars and a
big plump Great Tinamou that simply melded into the background even though it
was no more than twenty feet away.
Little Tinamou was also heard in song but we never got anywhere near one
and there were quite a few small birds that you could see with patience including
Lesser Greenlet (‘chiswick’ like Pied Wagtail) and Mistletoe Flycatchers
(‘pluuip’ like a Ringed Plover), whistling Chestnut-backed Antbirds and a
dashing Black-faced Antthrush. Wedge Billed Woodcreepers clambered along trunks
and a singing Black Crowned Ant-Shrike gave himself up. A boldly marked bird
with a big bill. Bay Wrens warbled and
shouted at us and Ochre-bellied Flycatchers were found in a couple of spots.
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| Sally the Umbrella Pro - Martin the Umbrella Virgin... |
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| Rufous winged Woodpecker |
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| Rufous winged Woodpecker |
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Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird
|
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| Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird - a nest in progress |
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| Purple-throated Fruitcrow |
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| Purple-throated Fruitcrow |
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| Black Crowned Ant-Shrike |
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| Black Crowned Ant-Shrike |
The little bit of damp brought out the Strawberry Blue Jeans
Dart Frogs and you had to watch where you put your feet as they clambered
through the leaf litter. Some of the Ants were bigger than they were.
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| Strawberry Blue Jeans Dart Frog |
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| Strawberry Blue Jeans Dart Frog |
Back out in the more managed areas around the research
station there were Blue-chested HBs, White-necked Jacobins and Purple Crowned
Fairies and by scanning the bare trees we found both White-necked and the much
smaller Pied Puffbird in the same tree!
Masked Tityras and Piratic Flycatchers were in the bare canopy too and
there were Buff-rumped Warblers and squeaking Orange-billed Sparrows in the
margins. Chestnut-sided Warblers, Blue
Dacnis, Red-legged Honeycreeper and Tody Flycatcher fed in a fruiting tree and
a Great Curassow could be heard booming in the jungle some way off.
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| White-necked Puffbird |
A spiral of 20 or so Broad-winged Hawks and a couple of
Swainson’s spiralled above and two Pale-billed Woodpeckers showed briefly
before we reached a damp clearing. Like last time we soon found one of the
Giant Blue-tipped Helicopter Damselflies as it slowly drifted across the
sedges. There were a few other Dragonflies here but no birds in the clearing at
all.
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| Broad-winged Hawks |
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| Giant Blue-tipped Helicopter Damselfly - Andy Reid - He apologised that it was not very good! |
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Tropical Woodskimmer (Uracis imbuta) |
It was one of those ‘not know where to look days’ and I can
only imagine what the newbies were experiencing! While they were Puffbirding I
followed a small bird behind a bush and nearly trod on a Pauraque. I backed up and went back for the others but
did not tell them what I had found. They
were delighted to say the least. Why
can’t I find a European Nightjar like this at home?
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| Pauraque |
After checking out the roosting Proboscis Bats (they look like Sac-winged) we crossed back over the bouncy bridge (with Kiskadees and Social Flycatchers nesting on it and an Amazon and Green Kingfishers below) and Steve promptly found a Semi-plumbeous Hawk perched motionless in one of the nearest trees.
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| Semi-plumbeous Hawk |
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| Proboscis Bats |
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| A small jungle Snail |
To say that it showed well is an understatement and the guys
with lenses were happy to I think. I could hear some French birders on the
other side of the path but out of sight so I popped around to tell them about
the Hawk. In return they showed me two Eastern Kingbirds perched at the top of
a snag – another new bird for me. I
showed them the Hawk – it was one of their most wanted and took some of the
others back for the Kingbirds – smiles all round.
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| Eastern Kingbirds |
I think lunch beckoned at this point – it all started to get
a bit blurry to be honest.
We did not travel too far from the reserve to eat and were
hosted by an ex La Selva guide of some repute who now has his own reserve out
the back of his Taverna. Ramon’s wife
Wilma and his two kids joined us for lunch too which was cool. The trees above were home to a troop of
Mantled Howlers who nonchalantly munched leaves and fruits and dangled about by
their tails.
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| Mantled Howler |
A Bright Rumped Attila showed well for a change and I found
a Bay-breasted Warbler and Lesser Greenlets out the back. A singing Trogon
turned out to be our first Black-faced.
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| Black-faced Trogon - Andy Reid |
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| Lesser Greenlet |
However all eyes were actually on the ground where there were sparring
matches going on between rival Green & Black Dart Frogs. These are much chunkier than their blue and
red cousins and we wondered if their poison exudes from the skin during such
wrestling matches and whether it is then on the leaf litter itself?
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| Green & Black Dart Frogs |
There was another Herpetological treat in store here with
the rarely seen Casque-Headed Lizard pretending to be invisible just a couple
of feet off the ground. Steve was especially pleased. The brown form that we observed is even rarer
than the normal green one.
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| Casque-Headed Lizard |
Replete after lunch we headed back to La Selva for round
two. I had a feeling as we drove out for
lunch that there was a lot of bird movement and asked if we could stop and had
another go at the drive way. It was like
a different world with a whole selection of species that we never saw in the morning. Two Black-throated Wrens sang and crept around in the tangles half way
up a tree and with some time we all got to see them well. They were joined by a beefy pied male Great Antshrike and two needle billed Trilling Gnatwrens. The
Ant-Tanagers were still around and Dusky Antbirds were heard and seen briefly
while the Great Green Macaws were on the move once again.
An odd looking Yellow-Olive Flatbill became an Eye-ringed
Flatbill and Cocoa and Stripe Headed Woodcreepers were seen along with two
Plain Xenops and Golden Winged, Black & White and Chestnut-sided Warblers
all moved through above us.
.JPG) |
| Swamp Lily - Crinum erubescens |
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| Rufous-tailed Jacamar |
We walked back across the bridge and our guide
could hear a Scaled Pigeon singing and picked it up on a distant tree. We saw one near here in 2020 but it was good
to have a prolonged look at this most handsome of birds. Red-billed Pigeons and
Squirrel Cuckoos were noted and a Collared Peccary ambled through the gardens
before we descended back into the gloom of the jungle. Rufous Mourner and
Cinnamon Becard were discovered and the Black-faced Grosbeaks put on another
show. |
| Red-throated Ant-Tanager - Ken Copleston |
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| Black-faced Grosbeaks |
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| Red-lored Parrot |
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| Collared Peccary |
A noisy party of birds were moving through low down and we
tried to get in front of them but it was hard work and we only got the briefest
of views as the Dusky Faced Tanagers crashed by. Definitely one I want to see a
lot better! A stunning Rufous Motmot was
ample recompense for the brief Tanagers!
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| Rufous Motmot |
We looped back seeing a Central American Agouti in the
garden borders and then a Yellow-marginated Flycatcher (like the Flatbills but
with dark eyes) by the bridge just before we crossed with a Great Crested
Flycatcher in canopy where the Eastern Kingbirds had been as we reached the other
side. A great party of at least 40 Chestnut-headed Oropendolas headed off to
roost and Great Green Macaws went in the opposite direction to the 14 seen
during the morning.
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| Central American Agouti |
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| Chestnut-headed Oropendola |
Strangely enough the highlight for many of us was getting up
close to a diminutive Honduran Ghost Bat tucked up in his folded palm leaf
although getting sticks thrown at you from above by some angry Capuchins for
daring to stop on the path was a little over the top on their part.
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| Honduran Ghost Bat |
Another long but rewarding day was over but there was still
time for some post dinner frogging and we got some superb views of Cane Toads,
Central American Bullfrogs and the captivating Red-eyed Treefrogs. A unidentified Frog even appeared on the path for a
brief performance.
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| Red-eyed Treefrogs |
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| Central American Bullfrog |
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| Central American Bullfrog |
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| Not sure yet, thought Dink but not a Tree Frog... |
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| Cane Toad |
Perhaps the oddest discovery was a Slug that I tried to
rescue from the path but it was of a most peculiar texture and absolutely
immoveable. It was barely moist and quite leathery – most odd. Given the
proclivity of jungle critters to be poisonous, I probably should not really
have been touching a vulnerable and innocuous looking mollusc!
New Birds: * = life tick ** = new to
Costa Rica but previously seen elsewhere
39: Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker *
40: Double Toothed Kite *
41: Bronzy Hermit*
42: Eastern Kingbird*
43: Black-throated Wren*
44: Eye-ringed Flatbill*
45: yellow-marginated Flycatcher*
46: Dusky Faced Tanager*
.JPG)
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