Facemelting X 100

Fiery-billed Aracari. I am going to be at a loss for captions for a lot of these Costa Rica birds, since most of them are new. I can only use the term "facemelting" so many times in a blog post. Photographed at Cerro Lodge, near Tarcoles.

Back from the static-laden realms of cyber-torpor, BB&B is happy to announce its return to life after 3 weeks. The Birdosphere, I have been told, has been in complete shambles in 2013 so far, and it is time that this blog rears its ugly head (complete with thick-rimmed nerd glasses) before the birding community goes completely out of control and spirals off into an even dorkier abyss.

Costa Rica just happened to me for the first time. As it was my first time birding south of Mexico, shit got pretty intense. On a daily basis we hit mixed flocks so large and bizarre that the only way we could acknowledge them properly was by gasping something like "Oh Jesus" and "It's happening again".

I managed to come back with all of my optics and photographs (although, more mysteriously, without pants), so I am leaving you with no choice but to hear tales of shed blood and tears, hundreds of life birds, and misidentifications so bad that they are bound to take some of our first-borne children down to a lower caste. See you soon.

A male Passerini's Tanager, one of the most common birds in the Carribean lowlands. I assume they sit like this to seduce lady-tanagers and ward off evil spirits. Photographed at Hotel Gavilan Rio Sarapiqui.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is by far the commonest hummingbird in Costa Rica. Although they are great-looking birds, it is hard not to hate them since they aggressively drive off practically every other hummingbird they come in contact with. At a couple sites, with great satisfaction we watched them lose duel after duel with the dreaded Violet Sabrewings, which are about the size of crows*. Photographed at Sarapiqui Eco-Observatory.

* = I made that crow part up, don't worry about it.