And all the rest...
May 16th, 2014

Some final photos from Costa Rica, followed by my triplist. The permanent home for pictures from this trip will be here.



Cattle Egret - wallpaper available


Red-Breasted Blackbird - wallpaper available

A flock of these gorgeous icterids descended on the baby palms one morning while I was out birding. I never saw them after that. Despite the name, they are more closely related to our meadowlarks than to other blackbirds.


White-Tipped Dove

The blue orbital skin, i.e. the blue around the eye (more visible at high res), is the only reliable way of distinguishing this bird from a Gray-Headed Dove, which has red instead. Interestingly, in areas where Gray-Headed Dove doesn't occur (and thus no confusion could occur), the White-Tipped's orbital skin is red. It's not the only case I've heard where birds seem to have certain features for the sole purpose of telling each other apart. Or maybe they're just helping us bird-watchers out!


Gulf Fritillary - wallpaper available


Photo by Michael Britton

The view out to the front garden from our resort. Just looking at this picture makes me nostalgic!


Great Kiskadee - wallpaper available


Great Kiskadee


White Ibis


Social Flycatcher

One of the kiskadee lookalikes. Its more delicate bill helps give it away. It's also much less noisy.


Yellow-Headed Caracara

A scavenging raptor much like the Crested Caracara. I often saw them looking for food on the estuary at low tide.



And now the triplist. Since the majority of them were lifers, I might as well list those first.

Amazon Kingfisher
America Pygmy Kingfisher
Anhinga
Baird's Trogon
Bananaquit
Bare-Throated Tiger Heron
Barred Antshrike
Bay-Headed Tanager
Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
Black-Bellied Wren
Black-Crowned Tityra
Black-Faced Antthrush
Black-Hooded Antshrike
Black-Mandibled Toucan
Black-Throated Trogon
Blue Dacnis
Blue-Black Grassquit
Blue-Crowned Manakin
Blue-Crowned Motmot
Blue-Gray Tanager
Blue-Throated Goldentail
Boat-Billed Flycatcher
Bright-Rumped Attila
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown Booby
Brown Jay
Buff-Rumped Warbler
Charming Hummingbird
Cherrie's Tanager
Chestnut-Backed Antbird
Clay-Colored Robin
Cocoa Woodcreeper
Common Black Hawk
Common Tody-Flycatcher
Costa Rican Swift
Crested Caracara
Crested Guan
Crimson-Fronted Parakeet
Dickcissel
Double-Striped Thick-Knee
Double-Toothed Kite
Dusky Antbird
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Fiery-Billed Aracari
Gartered Trogon
Golden-Hooded Tanager
Golden-Naped Woodpecker
Gray Hawk
Gray-Breasted Martin
Gray-Crowned Yellowthroat
Great Kiskadee
Great-Tailed Grackle
Green Honeycreeper
Green Kingfisher
Green-Breasted Mango
Groove-Billed Ani
Hoffman's Woodpecker
Hoffman's Woodpecker x Red-Crowned Woodpecker
Inca Dove
King Vulture
Lesser Greenlet
Lineated Woodpecker
Long-Billed Hermit
Mangrove Swallow
Masked Tityra
Melodious Blackbird
Neotropic Cormorant
Northern Jacana
Ochre-Bellied Flycatcher
Orange-Billed Sparrow
Orange-Chinned Parakeet
Orange-Collared Manakin
Pale-Vented Pigeon
Palm Tanager
Piratic Flycatcher
Plain Wren
Plain Xenops
Purple Gallinule
Purple-Crowned Fairy
Red-Breasted Blackbird
Red-Capped Manakin
Red-Crowned Woodpecker
Red-Legged Honeycreeper
Red-Lored Parrot
Ringed Kingfisher
Riverside Wren
Roadside Hawk
Rose-Throated Becard
Roseate Spoonbill
Royal Flycatcher
Ruddy Ground-Dove
Rufous-Naped Wren
Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird
Scaly-Breasted Hummingbird
Scarlet Macaw
Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher
Short-Billed Pigeon
Short-Tailed Hawk
Silver-Throated Tanager
Slaty-Tailed Trogon
Social Flycatcher
Southern Rough-Winged Swallow
Spot-Crowned Euphonia
Squirrel Cuckoo
Streak-Headed Woodcreeper
Streaked Flycatcher
Stripe-Throated Hermit
Striped Owl
Stub-Tailed Spadebill
Sulphur-Rumped Flycatcher
Swallow-Tailed Kite
Thick-Billed Euphonia
Thick-Billed Seed Finch
Thrushlike Schiffornis
Tropical Gnatcatcher
Tropical Mockingbird
Turquoise-Browed Motmot
Violet Sabrewing
Violet-Headed Hummingbird
Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper
Whimbrel
White-Collared Seedeater
White-Crowned Parrot
White-Shouldered Tanager
White-Tipped Dove
White-Winged Dove
Wood Stork
Yellow-Bellied Elaenia
Yellow-Bellied Seedeater
Yellow-Headed Caracara
Zone-Tailed Hawk

Other triplisters:

Acadian Flycatcher
American Redstart
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Black Vulture
Black-and-White Warbler
Black-Necked Stilt
Brown Pelican
Cattle Egret
Chestnut-Sided Warbler
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
House Sparrow
House Wren
Indigo Bunting
Least Sandpiper
Little Blue Heron
Magnificent Frigatebird
Northern Waterthrush
Orchard Oriole
Osprey
Prothonotary Warbler
Rock Pigeon
Semipalmated Plover
Summer Tanager
Tennessee Warbler
Tricolored Heron
Turkey Vulture
White Ibis
Willet
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-Throated Vireo

Total: 165
Total lifers: 131
New life total: 460

And now, big damn spider ←

→ Scenery for a change