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.

Purple Martin

 

Purple Martin
Vollmer Peak, Orinda, California, USA
July 2022
Member of the Swallow Family
§A Gulp of Swallows§ (dubious about this claim)
★The Largest North American Swallow★

{Etymology Corner} So, when I was preparing this blog I stopped for a moment and thought 'why are they called Martins instead of, you know, Swallows, like all the other members of the Swallow Family. So, as you do, I googled it, for the blog. The answer is interesting enough that I'm just going to fully quote The Online Etymology Dictionary directly"

Martin (n.) kind of swallow-like bird (Chelidon urbica), 1580s (earlier in diminutive form maretinet, mid-15c.), from Old French martin, which is apparently from the masc. proper name Martin in some sense. Writers in 17c. said it was named for St. Martin of Tours (d. 397 C.E.), patron saint of France, whose festival day (Martinmas) is Nov. 11, about the time the birds are said to depart for winter. But OED says the naming "may have been purely arbitrary," and Century Dictionary says "the name has no specific meaning ...." Usually with a qualifying term: the common house-martin is so called because it nests under the eaves of houses. The American purple martin is so called by 1804.

So named after, literally, the name Martin, or maybe just nothing. Amazing work language, you're doing great.

~True Bird Fact~ Purple Martins have a rare and interesting relationship with humans, having developed, over the centuries an almost symbiotic relationship with us. Purple Martins are almost 100% reliant on humans for the creation and maintenance of their nests. The bird migrates between North and South American, and Native peoples in pre-colonial times would hang up hollowed out gourds for nests. The people get a bird that eats tons of insects that would otherwise be eating crops, and the birds get a home. The practice of building and keeping up Martin nests continues to this day, although there is concern that it's becoming less popular with young people (Millennials are killing Martins with their lattes and avocado toast! (I am being sarcastic here)). There are not many birds with a whole non-profit dedicated to their continued existence, but this bird has one. Cool stuff, Martin!

So this is my last blog of the year. Usually I do some kind of year in review post, outlining the best birds, best posts, etc. Well, this year, as you might have noticed, we have had a grand total of 3 blogs, coming in well under my own goal of doing one a month. What can I say, this is the year my son went from 3 to  4 and my daughter went from 0 to 1. It's been a bear, folks, but hopefully, next year will be more like a bird, which is to say I'll do more bird watching and blog more birds in the new year. Best wishes, Amateurnithologist signing off for 2022. 

Cliff Swallow (and nest)

Cliff Swallow
El Sobrante, California, USA
Member of the Swallow Family
§A creche of young swallows§

~true bird facts~ Cliff swallows show a lot of interesting social characteristics. They usually live in colonies, which, out west, can be up to 3700 nests. When a swallow finds a source of food (they eat flying insects, mostly), they sometimes call out to their colony using a special cry, alerting them of the meal. Swallows also sometimes raise each other's young, placing one of their eggs into another swallow's nest. Let's not speculate on the rational or evolutionary reasons for these behaviors (like many other websites) and just assume that swallows are really into communal living.

Has been through some stressful times, but is doing great now

Open to new experiences
Very into the colony, makes good use of the considerable support they provide
Likes physical closeness

Nest Details
Construction: Mud pellets, which the swallow caries from up to a mile away, one mouthful at a time. A nest is made up of 900-1200 mud pellets. Inside it is lined with grasses or vegetation.
Location: The San Pablo Reservoir recreational area, under the awning of a restroom.
Occupants: A pair of cliff swallows, their young. A male swallow sometimes begins construction of the nest before he finds a partner, but they build it together for the most part. While the swallows only have one partner that they raise young with, they continue to "frequently mate outside of the pair bond". Thanks for describing bird polyamory in such a dry way, allaboutbirds.org

Violet-green Swallow // William Swainson

Violet-green Swallow
Park City, Utah, USA
Member of the Swallow Family
§A Sord of Swallows§

~true bird fact~ Violet-green swallows have been known to babysit for bluebirds. They protected and fed the chicks in the absence of their parents until they fledged (were able to leave the nest). It takes a village!

On another note- because of the unfortunate angle your bird photographer had to take this photo from, you can't really see this guy's namesake plumage, which is really very striking. I vow to one day get a better photo of this bird, but if you can't wait til then, google him, he's super cool looking.

Listens to the radio
Loves to tell you what you're doing wrong with your kids. A real busybody
Has a stilted and awkward way of interacting with others
Maybe belongs to one of those weird religious group

First described in 1827 by William John Swainson.

 

Swainson was a character. He is, in his wikipedia article (the measure by which all men are judged) described at different points as 'influential', 'reckless', 'famous', 'eccentric', 'talented', and 'ignorant as a goose'. He once became involved in a land dispute with a Māori chief in New Zealand. It is fair to say Swainson was on the wrong side of history several times. But let's not just jump right to his failings.

Active through the early and middle 1800's, Swainson began his career, as so many naturalists, in the military. A major explorer of Brazil who focused mainly on birds and fish, Swainson has quite a lot of namesakes. He has his own thrush, hawk, warbler, sparrow, francolin (?), flycatcher, and even a toucan. He mainly achieved fame as an early adopter of lithography. In fact, he was the first naturalist to do so. It was an easy way to mass produce prints without the use of an engraver. Monochrome lithographs would arrive with a sort of paint-by-numbers created by Swainson. He was apparently an illustrator of great achievement.

Swainson took a turn for the odd when he began supporting a new system of biological classification called Quinarianism, which posited, for seemingly no reason, that all taxa could be divided into fives. If an animal did not have five variations in its family, that meant that there were undiscovered species. It only got more complicated from there and the images of this system have a kind of bizarre Kabalistic look to them.

Late in life he took an ill-advised position as a botanical surveyor in Sydney, Australia (he moved to Oceania when he was basically laughed out of Britain for his Rule of Five nonsense). He knew basically nothing about Botany, unfortunately, and released an absurd report that listed, among other oddities, over 1500 species of Eucalyptus Trees (ur author notes that this is way more than 5). He died a few years later. William Swainson may be dead, but he continues to delight with his lasting images of birds and tales of his ridiculous misadventures.

Birdter Homes & Gardens: Swallow's Nest

Home Details
Description: A mud nest, the construction of which took over a thousand trips for the swallow
Location: Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Center, Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada
Occupants:A Barn Swallow, presumably her eggs. Wait a second, did I just successfully take a picture of a swallow?! The calls for a celebration!


Barn Swallow
Oak Hammock Marsh, Manitoba, Canada
Member of the Swallow Family
*true bird facts*~ The most abundant and widely distributed swallow in the world, some estimate that there are 200 million of her in the world. That's a hard number to... swallow.

A free spirit, no one can tell her what to do
Mentions her favorite inspirational quotes frequently
Shops at the farmer's market
Has never really known hardship, but cares deeply about issues
Knows about flowers

Trying to Take Pictures of Swallows: A series of artistic images that contain no birds