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.

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

Good Birds, Bad Pics: Mono Lake Edition

 Hello bird fans! As you might have known from my Grouse Grousing last month, I recently took a trip to Mono Lake. It was a wonderful trip, but to be honest, not as bird-bountiful as I might've wanted. It was a little early to catch the big migrations, but still, it's away from home, and that means new birds. Just not, like, a lot of new birds. And certainly not cooperative new birds. So below I present to you some of the finds that I'm happiest about having seen, even if I didn't exactly nail it in the picture department. These days it feels like the busy amateur birder should feel pretty good about having even tried, right?

Clark's Nutcracker
Mono Lake County Park, Lee Vining, California, USA
July 2020
Member of the Crows and Jays Family
§A Jar of Nutcrackers§ (the other ones are worse)

~True Bird Fact~ Yup, he's named after That Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame. I'm not going to do a naturalist profile in this one. I just did one of those. Go read about how birds shouldn't be named after these guys anyway.

Picture Crime: Far away, in shadow. Basically you can barely see it well enough to ID.

Wilson's Phalarope
Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Preserve, Lee Vining, California, USA
July 2020
Member of the Sandpipers and Phalaropes Family
§A Dopping of Phalaropes§
★The Largest Phalaropes★ (of...3)

[Etymology Corner] Phalarope, that's a weird word, huh? It comes from the Latin name of the bird, and it breaks down to mean Coot-footed. So this bird is named after having lobed feet, similar to a coot. Ironically, this member of the Phalarope genus actually doesn't even have the lobed feet. Pretty messed up that the birds have similar feet but one is named after the other. If only the cards had been dealt a different way, perhaps the coot would've been named Phalarope-footed (but this would cause a time paradox, unfortunately). 

~True Bird Fact~ Unlike most birds, the female is the dominant member of the species. She is larger, more colorful, and males watch the nest while she is out finding more partners. Girlboss!

Picture Crime: Far away, in a group, breeding plumage appears to have not quite come all the way in yet. Other birds nearby confuse me and make me less confident in my ID. They could be juveniles, non-breeding birds, or even non-breeding Red-necked Phalaropes.

Brewer's Sparrow
Gem Lake Trail, June Lake, California, USA
July 2020
Member of the American Sparrows Family
§A Ubiquity of Sparrows§

~Interesting Bird Facts?~ None. Hey, it's named after that same guy from Brewer's Blackbird. That's something, I guess.

Picture Crime: Obstructed behind a branch. Slightly out of focus. Sparrow, so, inherently boring. I already forgot which one it is. 

Well, thanks for slogging through those medium pictures. Still, it's 3 birds I didn't know before, and sort of know now. See you next time when we get into some of the birds I got slightly better shots of.

Good Birds, Bad Pics

Hey all. Sometimes birding is hard out there. When you've been doing it for as long as I have, and trying to blog about once a week, for the last, like, 6 years, sometimes you come up short of really great pictures of birds you've never written about before. More and more I'll come back from a walk with a camera full of birds and find that they're mostly ones I've already done. Being truly 'out of birds' is not something that I have to worry about for a while, but there's also the pictures to think about. I know I don't need to tell you, reader, that sometimes the quality of the pictures varies a lot. Of course, I do try to keep some kind of standard, or at least only flex that standard for a bird I'm really excited about. Sometimes a bird pic is just not good enough to run as a 'portraiture' entry. I just know I haven't captured the 'essence of the bird', so to speak, so I don't count it.

All that is to say that after looking through the last few months of bird photos, and a couple of misstarts to the ol' blog, this is what I've decided to go with. A trio of birds I was quite excited to get, but that don't really warrant a full blog on their own. Just on a, like, quality level. This way I get to show off these cool birds, but still reserve the right to do a full entry on them later, if I ever get a great picture. Let me know if you hate this blog entry, cause it's a little different. Love you lots. -A

Savannah Sparrow
Salinas River State Beach, Moss Landing, California, USA
January 2018
Member of the American Sparrows and Towhees Family
§A Flutter of Sparrows§

Quickly dismisses others' concerns



Hooded Merganser (male, non-breeding)
Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, USA
February 2018
Member of the Ducks, Geese, and Swans Family
§A Brace of Ducks§

Feels persecuted for his taste in music

Hermit Thrush (probably..)
Point Molate Beach Park, Richmond, California, USA
February 2018
Member of the Thrush Family
§A Hermitage of Thrushes§

Spaces out

Struggling to get an Acceptable Picture of an American Redstart: A Birding Journey

Hi friends. I'm on a bit of a Florida birds kick these days (truth be told, this is largely because I haven't found the time for a real birding trip in a while). No bird gave me more trouble while I was in Florida than the American Redstart. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that, because the Redstarts made themselves abundantly clear from early on, while much desired birds like Painted Buntings and Snail Kites remained entirely absent. Simply put, I could not get a Redstart to sit still to save my life. Maybe my camera settings were off, maybe my skills were not where they needed to be, maybe it was just a bird I was not meant to get a great picture of. But I sure tried, folks. This blog is about that.

The first few pictures I got were at Morikami Park, in Delray Beach Florida. It's a heavily forested botanical gardens, and the Redstart(s) here flitted from tree to tree, staying mostly in the shadow.

Honestly these were probably the best pictures I got of them. My wife and family had to endure me doing a lot of standing around and staring up into the branches of trees. The pictures came out looking like this.



Truly a magnificent bird.

Lighting: poor
View: obstructed

Next time I saw him, he was down in South Miami Beach, Florida, amid the seagrapes. This one was so close to being perfect birdfans. Just a little tiny bit longer in this spot and I could've gotten the focus in on him, instead of the coral wall behind him. He was gone too quickly to get a second shot.

Oddly, the only time he sits still is when he's far enough away that I can't get a good picture of him. Almost as if being on the move around humans is a good idea or something. This is at the full 50x zoom my camera is capable of, so he was really a speck in the distance. All of the rest of these pictures are from Key Biscayne. It is a beautiful and undervisited park, but things did not get better there for our Redstart odds.

Out of focus level: medium
Still obstructed

This one, I think, would have been the shot, but the bird had other ideas. After this point, I had run out of other people's time to waste, and just figured I'd make the best of it when I got home. We've all been there, right? At least that's what I tell myself. I went to battle with the bird, and in this case, the bird won. Well, at least I was able to positively ID him. It's not called pro-ornithologist for a reason folks, and I hope that my continued struggles are an inspiration to all the other not-so-pro birders out there. Stay tuned next week when I hopefully have some really exciting stuff to share from a trip I'm taking this weekend.

American Redstart
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Florida, USA
April 2016
Member of the Wood Warbler Family
§A Confusion of Warblers§

{etymology corner} American Redstarts are not part of the same biological family as other birds called Redstarts, and derive their name from their red tails (a start = a tail in olden times).

~true bird fact~ American Redstarts flash their bright tail and wingpatches while foraging, making them look like a blur of color. This startles their intended insect prey and flushes them out of hiding.

Feisty, responds poorly to rules and requests
Spends money recklessly
Boastful
Always willing to stop what he's doing if something more entertaining comes up