Ornate Hawk-eagle and other good birds

I spent a while alone birding up right at the top of the reserve on the trail that goes up to Mount Chirripo this morning. There was lots of bird activity in the old growth trees, the best sighting being a rather lucky view of an Ornate Hawk-eagle which glided silently through the trees just as I turned my head. Other firsts today included Yellow-thighed Finch, Chestnut-headed Brush-finch, Ruddy Treerunner, Orchraceous Wren, Lineated Foliage-gleaner, Three-striped Warbler, Eye-ringed Flatbill and Ruddy-capped Thrush-nightingale.

Unfortunately, no photos of any of these species since my bridge camera has succumbed to the humid conditions. I will have to lug my scope up the mountain from now on to digiscope birds.

Here are some photos of some other species...

Rufus-browed Peppershrike

Silver-throated Tanager - very common.

Summer Tanager

Don Victor adventure

Yesterday I went on an adventure to explore Don Victor; a trail that had been inaccessible since Storm Nate swept away the bridge over the river a couple of months ago. With some help from some local farmers, we constructed a make-shift bridge over the river using large logs of wood that had been washed downstream. It was a perilous crossing, with myself almost slipping off into the raging water below on a couple of occasions.

Make-shift bridge

Another river we had to cross - it was much harder than it looks in the photo.

I saw a few new bird species here, including two American Dippers, a Tufted Flycatcher, Collared Redstart and Spotted Woodcreeper. There were also a few Torrent Tyrannulets feeding on the river.

American Dipper

Collared Redstart

Tufted Flycatcher - photography was challenging in the dim rainy conditions.

Unfortunately, the trails the other side of the river had both been cut off by massive landslides, meaning that 1/3 of the reserve is going to be inaccessible for the foreseeable future.

The path used to cross over to the otherside.

Earlier in the day, we found an interesting looking butterfly larvae...

Opsiphanes bogatanus - a unique looking head capsule with four pairs of spikes. A new record for the reserve.

New raptor species for reserve

Today, I found a juvenile White-tailed Hawk soaring high up in the valley; a new species for the reserve, taking the tally up to just over 300 (records started 16 years ago), so obviously quite a rarity.

White-tailed Hawk (juv) - note the distinctive shape in flight, with the first four primaries much longer than the rest.

It was a good day for raptors on the whole, with six species seen; both vultures, Roadside Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk. There were also numerous (c.400) White-collared Swifts flying high in the sky; I believe this is the second largest species of swift in the world. A Chestnut-headed Oropendola also flashed accross the road as I drove down the mountain standing in the back of a pick-up truck.

Short-tailed Hawk - very similar plumage to our Common Buzzard in Europe.

Red-tailed Hawk - bigger than I expected having not seen this species before.

We started the morning with a session of yoga in the most amazing room with an incredible view across the valley and up to the mountain tops.

On the walk back up to the village to have brunch, a Tiger Rat Snake crossed the road; the first snake I've seen since being here. It measured a good 6 or 7 feet!

Collared Peccary

I've seen five species of mammal since arriving at Cloudbridge; Spider Monkey, White-faced Capuchin, Red-tailed Squirrel, Coati, and today a Collared Peccary crossed the path as I was hiking back down after a morning birding in the cloud-forest. They have been known to charge humans if they feel threatened, but this one spent a couple of minutes on the track right in front of us before disappearing into the bush again.

Collared Peccary

There's a number of active bee's nests situated in prominent positions around the reserve.

Still plenty of signs of damage after Tropical Storm Nate hit Costa Rica a couple of months ago. The bus journey over the mountains was in places restricted to one lane due to landslides and rock falls.

Ruddy Pigeon

Yellowish Flycatcher - like on the Black-capped Flycatcher, note the post-occular bulge in the eye ring, however the general yellow plumage sets this aside as a Yellowish Flycatcher.

Emerald Toucanet

Emerald Toucanets are pretty common in the cloud-forest, but it hasn't been until today that I've had a good view of them. They are very charismatic birds, and look quite comical when hopping from branch to branch.

Emerald Toucanet

Southern Rough-winged Swallow

Black-capped Flycatcher

Golden-crowned Euphonia (fem) - this species calls with a series of sad mournful sounding calls, a little like our European Bullfinches.

White-faced Capuchin Monkeys

We came across a group of about seven White-faced Capuchins this morning after hearing there distant harsh growling calls. At first they were nervous, ducking down to hide their faces behind clusters of leaves as I tried to get a view. They soon however accepted our presence and carelessly ate guava fruit from the branches above out heads for 15 minutes.

White-faced Capuchins

Watching monkeys

Sulphur-winged Parakeets

Western Wood-pewee - separated from Eastern Wood-pewee by the dark lower mandible.

New Hummingbird species for Reserve

Today, we found a new species of Hummingbird for the reserve's bird list; a Violet-headed Hummingbird.

Violet-headed Hummingbird - its crown would flash with iridescent violet as it moved its head from side to side.

The more interesting species seen on bird surveys included Buffy-tuftedcheek, White-napped Brush-finch, Slaty Flower-piercer, Slaty Antwren, Scintillent Humminbird, Torrent Tyrannulet and Collard Trogon.

Collard Trogon (fem) - flew from perch to catch a large butterfly in mid-air which it proceeded to consume right infront of us.

Torrent Tyrannulet - a pair seen on the River Chirripo

Mountain Thrush - black beak separates it from Clay-coloured Thrush

Spotted Barbtail - a small ellusive woodcreeper.

Bird surveys

This week I've been joining along on the long term bird monitoring surveys on the reserve. Each day, a different trail is hiked, and five or six point counts of 20 minutes are carried out. Some of the trails are extremely steep, gaining 700 metres in altitude over just a couple of kilometres. The trails generally start in newly re-planted woodland of 15-30 years, before entering old growth forest about half way up. Here, the massive trees are laden with epiphytes, and the air buzzes with mosquitos.

As well as the species photographed below, I saw Emerald Toucanet, Black-faced Solitaire, Shinning Honeycreeper, Green Honeycreeper and Squirrel Cuckoo amongst many more. For a full list, click on the "Bird List" tab at the top of the page.

Red-thighed Dacnis

Baltimore Oriole

Snowy-bellied Hummingbird

Golden-bellied Flycatcher

Tropical Parula

Trip to San Isidro

A walk down to San Gerardo to catch the bus down to San Isidro for food shopping saw Tropical Kingbirds, Black Vultures, Turkey Vultures and Social Flycatchers in abundance, with Golden-hooded Tanagers, Lesser Goldfinch, Bananaquit, Flame-coloured Tanager and Cattle Egret amoungst the other species seen.

Tropical Kingbird

Bananaquit

Black Vulture

Bananas

Costa Rican transportation

View over the River Chirripo

Supermarket at San Isidro

Introduction

This blog will document three months spent in the cloudforest of the Talamanca mountains in the south pacific of Costa Rica where I will be undertaking bird surveys at a nature reserve called Cloudbridge. Cloudbridge stretches from 1550 to 2600 metres above sea level, and comprises both primary woodland and former agricultural and pastural land, for which a constant turnover of volunteers helps re-forest, thereby helping to connect, and form wildlife corridors between nationally protected areas to the east, and internationally protected areas to the west. Here are some photos from my first couple of days.

The sun rises at 5:50am when the weather is nearly always clear and sunny. By midday to mid-afternoon, the clouds role up the valley, and it usually starts to rain by mid to late-afternoon.

The River Chirripo runs off the Talamanca mountain range and through the Cloudbridge river valley.

Yellow Warbler (female) - seen in a park in San Isidro del General while waiting for a bus.

Common Tody-flycatcher

Dusky-capped Flycatcher - seen outside my 8 person dorm.