Unusual Birds of Costa Rica

 

Here are some of the more unusual birds that I was able to photograph during our trip to Costa Rica back in August.

This is a Boat-billed Heron.

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/1250, F6.3 ISO 5000

Boat-billed Heron

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/1250, F6.3 ISO 4000

This Gray-headed Chachalaca is a fairly large bird - amount 17 to 23 inches.

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/400, F6.3, ISO 12,800

This is a female Slaty-tailed Trogon.

Nikon Z8, 500mm PF

1/1250, F5.6, ISO 11400

Another shot of the same Slaty-tailed Trogon.

Nikon Z8, 500mm PF

1/400, F5.6, ISO 3600

This is the Common Potoo. I'm not sure why but the Common Potoo has slits in its eyelids so they can see when their eyes are closed. Maybe because they have very large eyes to see at night. Their eyes are bright yellow and might give their location away.

Nikon Z8, 500mm PF

1/400, F5.6, ISO 500

TheCommon Potoo's survival strategy is to look like part of a tree. It is a nocturnal bird and is sort of a mix of owl and nightjar. It hunts insects at night. They don't build a nest - they lay a single egg in a depression in a limb and take turns incubating them.

They are hard to spot.

Nikon Z8, 500mm PF

1/3200, F5.6, ISO 2200

The Northern Jacana generally lives on floating vegetation in swamps and ponds. The yellow bony spurs on the leading edge of the wings can be used to defend itself and its young.

Nikon Z8, 500mm PF

1/3200, F5.6, ISO 900

Cocoa Woodcreeper

Click to enlarge.

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/400, F6.3, ISO 12,800

This the female Great Curassow. It seems to me to be flashier than the male which is unusual in the world of birds. This is the rufous morph.

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/500, F6.3, ISO 7200

A male Great Curassow. These are roughly pheasant sized.

Nikon Z8, 800mm PF

1/800, F6.3, ISO 12,800

Here some links to earlier postings.

Small, pretty birds in Costa Rica

Raptors in Costa Rica

Pretty, small birds of Costa Rica

Red-lored Amazon. This is a fairly large parrot so it isn't that small. It is the largest of this group.

Click to enlarge.

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 Yellow-crowned Euphonia

This probably an immature male.

Male Scarlet-rumped Tanager

Hard to believe that the following bird is the same species.

Female Scarlet-rumped Tanager

Blue-gray Tanager.

This is Bananaquit on some sort of Heliconia.

This is a Red-legged Honeycreeper. The male in breeding plumage looks nothing like this. It is a striking blue with a turquoise cap. This is most likely a female.

This is a Golden-hooded Tanager

This is the Blue Dacnis. It is a type of  tanager. There a about 10 types of Dacnis but none of them are found in the U.S. The Blue Dacnis is native to Central and northern South America.

Here is a link to pictures of some Costa Rica Raptors if you missed that blog post.

Costa Rica Raptors

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Costa Rica Raptors

Crane Hawk

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As many of you know, Margot and I took a trip to Costa Rica back in August. I participated in wildlife photography workshop and Margot relaxed at the resort and took a couple of trips into town.

Crane Hawk

Here is another shot.

Rather than chronologically, I thought I would share some of the photos by category. Today's category is raptors. I was surprised by the number we saw over the 6 days we were there.

Click any image to enlarge it.

We stayed at the Botánika Osa Peninsula in Puerto Jiménez in southern Costa Rica. It was very nice.

Roadside Hawk

This is a Roadside Hawk. Apparently, it is pretty common. We saw several during the trip.

Roadside Hawk

Here is another Roadside Hawk.

Click any image to enlarge it.

Yellow-headed Caracara

Another fairly common raptor is the Yellow-headed Caracara.

Yellow-headed Caracara

Here is one in flight.

Spectacled Owl

This is a Spectacled Owl. It did not want to come out in the open. We were lucky to spot it, actually.

This is a Central and South America species.

American Barn Owl

This is an American Barn Owl. It was roosting underneath a bridge over the river we were floating down. This is very common in the U.S. - really everywhere from Northern U.S. down to the tip of South America.

Double-toothed Kite

This is a juvenile Double-toothed Kite.

Click to enlarge.

Double-toothed Kite

You can see the double tooth a little better on this on if you click on it.

This one seems to be a little more mature.

Common Black Hawk

This is a Common Black Hawk.

Crested Caracara

This is the Crested Caracara. I don't think I have ever heard of this bird but it's range includes much of south and central Texas and small parts of Florida and Arizona.