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

I've decided to resurrect the photoblog. I enjoyed utilizing the photoblog to share what we were up to when we were living abroad. I sort of abandoned it in favor of Facebook shortly after we returned. On reflection, I think it is a better choice than Facebook - mainly because not everyone looks at Facebook. Also, there seems to be some unknowable algorithm in Facebook that (seemingly at random) shares postings with friends or not.

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.

War Eagle

It was a little frosty on Thursday morning as the War Eagle Craft Fair got started. Margot, Theresa and Sue had left even earlier so they would be sure to arrive before "all the good stuff was gone".

These first two pictures are from the highway along the bluff along War Eagle Creek just before it drops down into the valley. The cattle were getting some moisture from the dew and frost along with the grass as they grazed. (Click to enlarge.)

This was my first time to the fair but I understand these are new structures replacing the large tents used in years past. There were a lot of people there even this early. 

Greg, Bob and I left the fair about 10:30 and there was a long line of cars backed up to where I took the previous pictures. A hour and a half earlier we had cruised right in.

The mill and the bridge. The bridge was built in the early 1900s. It is one way and today it alternated between cars in each direction and foot traffic in both directions.

Here are a few pictures of the mill from an earlier post. War Eagle Mill in 2015