Costa Rica Blitz Blogging: Of Swallows, Seedeaters, and Getting Birds at Gamba

Time is running out...the blog window is closing. January is not a month to be blogging about birding in Costa Rica, as I will be very busy. With a great...many...things.

We left off in the tranquilo town of Golfito, where I picked up some absolutely debilitating food poisoning. It was easily the worst I've ever had. This was, predictably, immediately after I proudly declared that I would not get poisoned on this trip....and thus the puke train commenced later that night. A couple days later I thought it was Dengue Fever, had all the right symptoms, but it faded a bit too quickly for Dengue. If I got it where I think I did, the food was actually pretty good. Oh well, at least I picked it up near the end of the trip. Anyways, as popular as it is for birders to publicize their health problems, we should be talking about birding.

Dipper Dan and I weren't really planning on birding along Golfito Bay but we got quite a few trip birds on the mudflats...this sort of habitat isn't exactly widespread in the country, so it was refreshing to get some terns and shorebirds to work with. Of course, it was hell of scenic as well.

A little flock of Gray-breasted Martins were roosting under the roof of a dock. They put the CONFIDING in CONFIDING. It's always bizarre, almost surreal, to see a recent lifer so close-up, although it left my face quite intact.

This martin was crushed with a point-and-shoot. Remember those? Cute little bugger.

After Golfito we did some roadside birding south of Gamba. It was hot as fuck, but the birding was quality. As a great birder once said, "Middle of day is best for make good birding". This is true.

Great Kiskadees are common and widespread in Costa Rica, but thankfully they are not as painfully abundant as Social Flycatchers. It's hard to like Social Flycatchers after a while, because 99% of the time you look at them you are only doing so because you are hoping they are something else.

After the mediocre morning of birding, shit really started to pick up. Lifers began to appear again...Plain Wren, Blue Ground-Dove, and this insidious, little junco-looking bastard, a Yellow-bellied Seedeater.

They really do have yellow bellies, and we got to see quite a few of them. You know, one of the toughest things about blogging this Costa Rica trip is that I don't know jack shit about many of these birds, so it's hard to give them a lot of background. What do I know about Yellow-bellied Seedeaters? They look like juncos and Tricolored Munias, they like fields, and I think I like them. That's about it. We only saw them at this one spot, so there's not much more I can fill in. It's a sad state of affairs. Sorry....I have brought much dishonor to me and my family.

I'm a little more familiar with White-collared Seedeaters; this is one of those.

Oddly similar to a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak from this angle, with a less flashy breast patch of course. There are hella different subspecies of White-collared Seedeater, and the birds in Costa Rica look very different from what I've seen in eastern Mexico.

Now this...this is a bird. This a bird we know...yet it is almost a total stranger. Even those who haven't yet birded out of the country can recognize such a bland creature, for it is a rough-winged swallow. However, it might look a bit different to you...perhaps you are thinking, "Did Sibley just miss on this one?"

No, Sibley didn't miss on this one. This isn't just any rough-winged swallow...it's a Southern Rough-winged Swallow. Yes, there really is a counterpart to our familiar yet unloved Northern Rough-winged Swallow, which is nobody's favorite swallow, let alone favorite bird. Note the bright, contrasty rump and the rusty throat that make this an easy ID.

This is a fucking woodpecker! We saw an acceptable number of these tiny Olivaceous Piculets while in the country, but they were a serious pain to photograph. This was the best I could manage. Awesome birds, one of the many that struck a nerve with me.

Woodcreepers. You know I like woodcreepers, but when blogging about them all I want to talk about is how bloody hard they are to identify, which you likely know all about already because I keep telling you that over and over again. I had to break out the field guide just for posting this photo; I reckon this is a Cocoa Woodcreeper with its big, straight bill, spotted crown, standard underparts, etc.

There hasn't been a great deal of color in this post, so here is a poignant Yellow-crowned Euphonia for your trouble. Speaking of troubling birds, learning how to sort female euphonias was a major chore, so be ready for that group when you head south.

Fuck...you guys, I think I only have one Costa Rica post left. Thanks for staying with me on this trip...for all these years. It might be a while until the next (final!) CR post though, for there will be other birds to blog.

Costa Rica: Hammering Lifers at Las Alturas, Grit Blazing In Golfito

With winter here and another big trip coming up imminently, this is a good opportunity to do what I think is best...bust out another Costa Rica post. The finish line is finally in sight. More than a few of you will probably heading to places like Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico in the next couple of months, so lets get those salivary glands flowing with some tropical goodness.

I'll pick up right where I left off, at Las Alturas, on the South Pacific Slope east of San Vito. It was a very birdy day, too bad we didn't have more time to spend here. We'll start with a Purple-crowned Fairy, a canopy-loving hummingbird that typically scoffs at feeders.

I prefer to crush birds, but when that is not possible, I make them Art. You are currently beholding Art. That's why it's almost impossible to understand what is going on with this Fairy. It is Fairy Art. There is no singular truth to this hummingbird. It is a subjective hummingbird.

Shortly after the Purple-crowned Fairy departed, Dipper Dan and I gazed upon a Long-billed Starthroat, which was a LIFE BIRD. This is a damn good hummingbird, one that I'd been hoping to see. They are large and wonderful, two traits I am drawn to in hummingbirds. This would be the only one I would see on the trip, but it was heck of confiding.

Here is a more familiar bird. In fact, I've seen hundreds of thousands of them, but I will always keep looking at them. Broad-winged Hawks are common and widespread winter residents in Costa Rica, one of the most abundant raptors you will encounter in winter months.

Quite unlike Broad-winged Hawks, Torrent Tyrannulet is a habitat specialist. This wee flycatcher is strictly found along fast-flowing creeks and rivers, mellowing them with its two slaty colors and preference for perching on boulders. We dipped on two other birds that specialize in this habitat, Sunbittern and Fasciated Tiger-Heron...I'll just have to go back and try again, too bad for me.

If you haven't birded south of Texas or Florida yet, you may not know that tropical birding is an exercise in getting gripped off. You are always going to miss birds other people in your group see. It is inevitable. White-whiskered Puffbird was a major gripoff for me early in the trip, back at Quebrada Gonzales, but redemption was had with this cooperative bird sitting out in the open above a road.

How about another life bird? This is a Sulphur-winged Parakeet, an easy ID up close with the red cheeks. Sulphur-winged Parakeet is one of the less abundant parakeets in the country, so a solid bonus bird for us.

This was kind of a random sighting...Dipper Dan spotted it very close outside the car, quietly lurking under the canopy. How very unparrot. It would be our final lifer at Las Alturas.

Lets keep the lifers coming! This is a Bran-colored Flycatcher. This doesn't seem to be a bird that gets photographed a lot or even thought about, so here is a mediocre image for your edification. We talked about this bird a lot before we finally saw one, due to its phenomenally bland-sounding name. I believe this was at Lagunas San Joaquin, near the airport at San Vito. We didn't get a Masked Duck here (which is always my luck), but there are no eBird records of any here since 2008. You are better off checking Finca Cantaros, south of town.

Here is Lagunas San Joaquin, where you too can see a Bran-colored Flycatcher. You can also see an albino river otter here. Masked Ducks...not so much.

After leaving San Vito, Dipper Dan and I lurked back to the west coast for our final few days of slaying tropical birds. Our first stop was Golfito...this was a mistake. What we should have done was bird Las Cruces OTS/Wilson Botanical Garden again. It is a famed birding spot after all, so I feel like a bit of a wanker for only birding it one day. Why was this a mistake? The Golfito site I had picked out to bird was dead that morning. Hella boring. No flocks. Not rad. However, there was some redemption with this lifer mammal! We briefly hung out with a troupe of squirrel monkeys above Golfito, which was most mellow.

We were in some good habitat, but we ended up hanging out on the side of the road blazing grits with somebody's dog. Birding was slow. Obvi.

A lifer Mealy Parrot was nice. Why is it called a Mealy Parrot? Anyways, I can assure you that it was green. This Broad-winged Hawk was very, very confiding though...I have not met such a friendly member of its species before or since.

Here is the view of Golfito Bay from up on the hill. Heck of scenic.

Happy Festivus to all of you. I wish you much luck with the Feats of Strength, if you are selected. Of course, this follows the annual Airing of Grievances, and since you are a birder you probably have much to whinge about. Let the hate flow through you. 

The Human Birdwatcher Project Shamelessly Updated

The Great Kiskadee is lucky.  It may have to migrate, to find its own food, to survive in the elements, to avoid death at the talons of the raptor...but it will never have to know the awkward and tedious pain of being a human birdwatcher.

Birders, aside from this kiskadee photo, I have no new material to offer you today, but I have the next best thing...BB&B has organized and updated The Human Birdwatcher Project page.  Now you can easily find everything you are searching for in one place...even if you didn't know you were searching.  Read the cutting-edge features, become repulsed by our interview subjects (honest-to-goodness human birdwatchers), and marvel at the most unlikely art form of all...birders as art.  But despite what you read, you must never forget...birders are people too!