 |
| Resplendent Quetzal |
I had originally intended this to be my last blog on the Costa Rica trip but when I checked my photos I discovered that I had 6,000 to go through taken over the last three days of the adventure. I hence decided to split it into more manageable two blogs.
The reason for so many photos from our last lodge, Savegre,was the almost overwhelming abundance and variety of photogenic birds in the area.
Our big target bird for the 16th November was one of Costa Rica’s most iconic and highly sought after species, the very aptly named Resplendent Quetzal. So pre-breakfast we drove to a good local site for them where there were many purpose-built perches photogenically covered in lichen. We got there early as Paco said it could be quite busy there and sure enough there were already other parties present creating the nearest atmosphere to a twitch that we had on the whole trip.
The Quezal twitch
Within minutes of our arrival a male flew in and landed on one of the perches, wow(!!!!!), it was every bit as resplendent as its name suggests. The photos hardly do the bird justice. With its long tail streamers and kaleidoscope of ruby, emerald and copper colours it really was a visually supremely stunning bird! Quite why the national bird of Costa Rica is the drab Clay-coloured Thrush rather than this beauty is very hard to understand. Contrastingly, in Guatemala it is the national bird and is featured on their flag.
Their main food, wild avocados, was their attraction to this location. This fruit consists mostly of the stone seed in the middle with a very small covering of the yummy bit of the cultivar that we eat. The Quetzals eat the lot and regurgitate the inedible hard seed. It is generally found in high elevation rain forests making the population hard to estimate but it is believed to be in decline leading to it being rated as near threatened on the ICUN red list.
 |
| Wild avocado tree |
Yours truly and our amazing guide Paco 
Yours truly and our brilliant driver Roderigo
The male spent maybe ten minutes on the lichen encrusted perch before it dropped down onto the branch of an adjacent tree where it stayed until we had to pull ourselves away to get back to the hotel in time for breakfast.
Our return to the hotel was almost immediately delayed when an American Dipper was spotted on a fast flowing stream and we all disembarked to have a look. Superficially similar to our European Dipper with a similar aquatic lifestyle, it differed in being overall much greyer than our bird. Nearby an attractive Torrent Tyrannulet caught our eye. While this bird is a new world Flycatcher its behaviour is quite different from our European Flycatchers being a bird of rocky fast-flowing mountain streams as per my picture. We watched it hawking from the boulder catching flying insects. A Tropical Mockingbird sat atop a typical Costa Rican ramshackle and rather dangerous looking electrical pole where you could clearly see bare conductor.
 |
| American Dipper |
 |
| Torrent Trannulet |
 |
| Tropical Mockingbird |
After breakfast we gathered around the hummingbird feeders where we added Mountain Elaenia, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird and Scintillant Hummingbird to our trip list. A Rufous-collared Sparrow posed photogenically on the grass for us. Again you could see the resemblance to the old world sparrow family.
 |
| White-throated Mountain gem |
 |
| Scintillant Hummingbird |
 |
| White-throated Mountain gem |
 |
| Rufous-coloured Sparrow |
 |
| Fiery Throated Hummingbird |
 |
| Slaty Flowerpiercer |
Further along the path a Fasciated Tiger Heron had again read the script and posed beautifully for us. I was starting to get the distinct impression that spending two days staring into a bush on a windswept Yorkshire cliff top for a two second glimpse of a Green Warbler would never be quite the same again!
 |
| Fasciated Tiger Heron |
As the path became steeper and steeper some of our group opted to head back to the hotel but I persevered and was rewarded by some excellent views of Collared Redstarts who seemed to be as interested in us as we were in them and followed us along the path for a while. It is comparatively common in its very restricted range in the mountains of Costa Rica and western-central Panama.
Collared Redstart
After a hearty lunch and a short siesta we boarded the bus for a short drive and another local walk. It was a bit less productive than the morning. We saw a number of flower plants which I thought were wild dahlia which was later confirmed. The structure of the flower, buds and deadheads were identical to our tender perennials but the plants with a 12 month growing season were much bigger and bush like. A Tufted Flycatcher did pose for a few photos.
Tufted Flycatcher
 |
| Wild Dahlia |
The best bird of the afternoon for me was found on a stream back at the hotel where Paco spotted a small group of Spotted Wood Quail. This is a shy and wary species which will normally quickly make its escape on foot by creeping into the undergrowth. The male, as per my picture, has a small but prominent orange crest.
 |
| Spotted Wood Quail |
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
Comments
Post a Comment