Birds of Costa Rica 2: part 3

Common Black Hawk (busardo negro aka. gavilán cangrejero negro (lit. Black Crab-eating Hawk)
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Kites, Eagles, and Hawks Family
§A Kettle of Hawks§

~True Bird Fact~ Black Hawks are specialized to hunting prey in the water (hence the 'crab-eater' above). They can wade around in shallow water to startle fish and then use their wings to 'herd' them to spots where they can be picked off more easily. They also like to perch on low branches and then drop suddenly into the water to snatch up crabs, fish, and crawfish. Sounds like a nice life.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (colibrí cola rojiza)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Hummingbird Family

§A Bouquet of Hummingbirds§

{Etymology Corner} Something that's always fun is when you get a picture of a bird with a name that's like the "named-after-an-incredibly-obvious-physical-feature hummingbird" and somehow the angle that you get is the only possible one where that feature isn't visible. Makes you real cautious about the ol' ID. But I think that's probably what he is. There's not a lot of options in terms of the pink/orange bill. Anyway, this guy has kind of a red tail area.

~True Bird Fact~ Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds have a pretty rare social set-up- they live in loose colonies with one male and many females. In this setup, the male mates with the females and the females are responsible for nest-building, egg-incubating, and child rearing. How's that for a division of labor? Sheesh.

I know, I know, this is far and away the worst photo I have uploaded to the blog, a true #worstbirdpic, but I was so excited to see this guy and this is the only shot I got of him. C'est la vie. Maybe he will appear again on this blog when I get a good shot.

Crested Caracara aka. Mexican Eagle aka. Mexican Buzzard (carancho aka. traro)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Falcon Family

~True Bird Fact~ The only falcon to build a nest- all others just kind of lay eggs in the dirt, or use the old nest of other birds. Seems to be a bit of an intelligence outlier among this family to be honest- they also have learned to follow trains and cars to feed on discarded food. 

~Real Bird Myth~ As you might expect for such a distinctive and charismatic bird, the Crested Caracara features prominently in mythology. In the Aztec founding legend, the bird that shows them where to build their capital city is probably the Caracara. The legend goes that the sun god, Huitzilopochtli, told them they would build a city where they find an eagle perched on a cactus, holding a snake. This image may sound familiar to some, as it is depicted on the Mexican flag. Of course, the city they found is Tenochtitlan, which is the modern day Mexico City. The beautiful narrative here is only somewhere tainted by the fact that the bird on the modern Mexican flag is very clearly a Golden Eagle. Different interpretations of the same myth, it seems.

Birds of Costa Rica 2: part 2

Steak-backed Oriole (turpial dorsilistado aka. turpial de fuego (lit. Fire Oriole!))
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Blackbird Family

{Etymology Corner} Another local name for the bird is bolsero dorsilistado, which translates to Streak-backed Purse maker, which refers to these birds really cool looking nests. These birds (along with several others) construct what is called a penduline nest, or a woven structure made from grass and other foliage that hangs from a tree branch. These are really cool looking. Here is one such nest, also from this trip to Costa Rica.

Gray-breasted Martin (martín pechigrís)
Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Swallow Family

§A Scream of Swifts§ (Ok, I know, I know, these are Martins, not Swifts, and that's not even the same family (SOMEHOW), but I hadn't heard 'scream' as a term of venery before and I thought it was neat. Guys, the well is DRY on this bird, there are no other interesting facts about it. If you know anything about swallows or swifts, you know everything there APPARENTLY is to know about these birds. Ok, fine, fine, here's something-)

~True Bird Fact~ They can't walk, their little legs are only for perching. See!! That was the best I could do. That's barely interesting at all and something you probably would've assumed just looking at this thing. This bird blog was held up SIGNIFICANTLY while I tried to come up with something to say about this Gray-breasted Martin, which, BY THE WAY, this might not even 100% be, because Swallows are hard to ID. So LAY OFF!

Turquoz-browed Motmot (momoto cejiceleste) aka. Torogoz aka. Guardabarranco (lit. Ravine-guard) aka. Pájaro reloj (lit. Clock Bird)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica
May 2024
Member of the Motmot Family

★National Bird of both El Salvador and Nicaragua★

{Etymology Corner} I think we got a famous one here ladies and gentleman. It's always a good sign when a bird has like 6 plus names, and they're all really expressive and beautiful, and that's the situation we have here. In El Salvador, he's called Torogoz, which is a reference to the sound he makes (you be the judge). In Nicaragua he's called Guardabarranco (lit. Ravine-guard). In the Yucatán, he's called Pájaro reloj (lit. Clock Bird, for the way he moves his tail). And in Costa Rica he's called Pájaro bobo (Foolish Bird) for his comfort around humans. That's the good stuff!

~True Bird Fact~ So, that tail- it's referred to as 'racketed' and serves a couple of purposes. First, they use it for sexual selection- i.e. a male with a long tale is a more desirable mate. But interestingly, they also use it to communicate with predators (!). They wag their tail back and forth, like a clock pendulum, to signal to a predator that they have been observed, and that pursuing them would be pointless, because they will fly away if approached. This is called a 'pursuit deterrent signal'.

~Real Bird Myth(?)~ Look, I don't know what to trust anymore in regards to the internet. But there are lots of claims that the Motmot is a significant bird in Mayan cultural tradition (and why not, look at it!). Most of the stories I found were on travel websites, and they all had a theme of how the bird lost most of it's tail feathers, leaving only the aforementioned 'rackets', usually as a result of arrogance. Here's my favorite one of this genre, which I totally can't vouch for as legit, from this website.

The motmot’s Mayan name is toh, and it features in local legend and lore. According to one story, the motmot liked to meet his fellow royal birds and spend the day telling stories and feasting on insects while other birds were working. He was such a beautiful creature and so proud of his glossy tail and plumage that it made him arrogant and overbearing.

One afternoon, when black clouds were massing on the horizon heralding the approach of a storm, Oc, the king vulture summoned all the birds to a meeting and they decided to build themselves a shelter. Chujut the woodpecker, Panchel the toucan, Mox the parrot and Xtut collected timber, Baax the chachalaca and Cutz the wild turkey carried the heaviest branches and the hummingbirds collected grass, herbs and leaves for the roof. Other birds gathered fruit and seeds to tide them over the storm. Only the motmot refused to help, saying that he was an aristocrat, not a worker.

When the storm burst, the motmot found a crack in a stone wall that he thought would be a good place to hide. He crept in and went to sleep without noticing that his elegant long tail was still out in the open.

Much later, the motmot woke up and emerged from his shelter to sing in the sun like the other birds. He was astonished to find that all that was left of his beloved tail were two bedraggled and naked barbs with a small clump of feathers at the end. The wind and water had done their worst. Horrified, realized what a fool he had been. Pride soon got the better of him and he decided to shun his former companions for fear that they would mock him. He flew off into the depths of the forest and dug a hole where he hid until this very day. He still keeps to himself; perching on branches overlooking cenotes where he swings his long tail from side to side incessantly like the pendulum on a clock.

Birds of Costa Rica 2: part 1

Well, I went back to Costa Rica, just over ten years since my last trip. Costa Rica is a well known birders paradise, boasting more than 900 species in a relatively small area. Did I learn anything about birding since then? I guess we'll find out (but the answer is 'no', for those not wanting to read the whole thing). As you will see, this was not a 'birding trip' and was very limited in scope, but it would be impossible to not see some very impressive birds. 

Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica

May 2024

Member of the Cuckoo Family

{Etymology Corner} Why is it called a Squirrel Cuckoo? Well, because it kind of acts like, and could be confused for, a squirrel (theoretically). Quoth wikipedia: "This species’ English name derives from its habit of running along branches and leaping from branch to branch like a squirrel. It flies only short distances, mainly gliding with an occasional flap." OK!

Also, while researching this cuckoo I learned of potentially my favorite member of this family, the Cocos Cuckoo. C'mon, that's just too fun.

~True Bird Fact~ Unusual amount of interspecies cooperation observed with this bird, which forages happily alongside other birds and even some smaller mammals. They even take advantage of army ants, which they follow as they flush out prey. Also, unlike many cuckoos, they don't do any brood parasitism, and opt to raise their own young instead. I hate to assign personality to a bird (why would I do something like that?), but this guy seems like the good egg (so to speak) of a troubled family.

Neotropic Cormorant aka. Olivaceous Cormorant (Cormorán Biguá aka. Pato Cerdo, Pato Puerco, Pato Chancho, Pato gruñón [lit. Pig Duck, Dirty Duck, Oinking Duck])

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica

May 2024

Member of the Cormorant Family

§A Flight of Cormorants§

{Etymology Corner} Yes, Olivaceous means olive-colored. The Spanish informal names refer to the sound the bird makes, which is extremely pig-like IMO. Check it out at this link

~True Bird Fact~ Semi-domesticated and used for fishing by native people for, reportedly, the past 1600 years. Specifically, the bird is used by the Uru people of Peru.

Bare-throated Tiger Heron (Avetigre Mexicana)

Peninsula de Papagayo, Liberia, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica

May 2024

Member of the Egrets, Herons, and Bitterns Family

§A Sege of Herons§

~True Bird Fact~ There are, essentially, no fun facts associated with this Tiger Heron. He sure is a looker though!

Loves Sports Betting

Good Birds, Bad Pics: Florida edition

For a lot of reasons, it's looking like I probably won't be going back to my home state of Florida for quite some time. Although I have a complicated relationship with the place, I increasingly enjoyed my regular visits, and was able to develop an appreciation for the things that make it special. Arguable (and certainly for the purposes of this blog) the best thing about Florida is the birds. A great state for birds in general, but also, one where there is relatively little overlap with my adoptive home state of California. 

So every time I've gone back I've tried to get a bit of birding done, despite how little time I actually get to spend there. This past April was my last trip, and while it produced some good bird pictures (to be posted at the usual rate that things go around here), it also produced some real stinkers. However, given that this was my last trip for a while, I'm going to go ahead and say 'still counts'! So here, without further equivocating, are some really terrific and cool birds that I was so happy to see, but that I was unable to get anything but the #WorstBirdPics of.

Caspian Tern
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Boynton Beach, Florida, USA

April 2023
Member of the Gull, Tern, and Skimmer Family
§A Committee of Terns§

★The World's Largest Tern★

{Etymology Corner} Yes, they are named after the Caspian sea. And yes, a lot of these terns do live there. They really get around, huh?

What went wrong? Man, you know how these things fly around. It's hard to get a picture of them in flight, and they weren't landing. Also, the light was getting a little tough by this point.

Cape May Warbler
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Boynton Beach, Florida, USA

April 2023

Member of the Wood Warbler Family

§A Confusion of Warblers§

{Etymology Corner} Yes, they are named after Cape May, New Jersey, which was where the bird was first collected by European colonizer types. However, unlike the Caspian Tern (above), they do not actually really live in Cape May. In fact, it took a hundred years for another Cape May Warbler to be sited there, although today it's recognized as an uncommon visitor. Maybe don't go for just your first idea on these things, when you're naming birds. And yet, still better than being named after some guy..  Shoutout to the Bird Names for Birds movement on their recent victory.

~True Bird Fact~ They have a curled semi-tubular tongue, which is unique among warblers, and enables their seasonally varied diets. In the summer, they're up North, mostly eating bugs, but in the Winter, they live in the Caribbean, where flower nectar and fruit end up being a large part of their diet. I wonder if they like the winter better. I know which of those two diets sounds more appetizing to me.

What went wrong? This guy was hoping around everywhere, going nuts. Also, I get reluctant to hold other people up when I'm trying to take a picture of a bird around other people. Maybe my camera settings were funky? I think the light was also starting to go a little here as well.

Worm-eating Warbler

Lantana Nature Preserve, Florida, USA
April 2023
Member of the Wood Warbler Family

§A Confusion of Warblers§

{Etymology Corner} They don't eat worms! Not even a little. They do eat caterpillars, but not more than any other warbler. The reaction to this information across the bird internet is muted, sort of a 'eh, what are you gonna do?' vibe. I find this distressing information. To make matters worse, the Worm-eating Warbler has a range that includes Cape May much more regularly than the Cape May Warbler, and the Cape May Warbler is known for it's favored food source to be an insect called the Spruce Budworms, to the point where Cape May populations increase when there's a Budworm outbreak. Who is naming these things? We need to shut this whole thing down.

What went wrong? I saw this guy out in the open for about 5 seconds before he completely disappeared. I followed his chirping around for a bit, but he never came out in the open again. Also, it was raining

And lastly, a very special welcome back to the American Redstart in his unprecedented second appearance in the Good Birds, Bad Pics series. Go to hell American Redstart.

What went wrong? Personal hatred for me, I'm assuming