Big Birds on land & water

For me species together is a matter of “feel” rather than science, so bear with me. This group contains some of the most interesting birds I saw, they are not tiny birds and although some are not big, they fit in nicely with the group on the page. Because many of these are quirky birds and/or shore dwellers, it contains some of my favorite new birds. Enjoy!

Wood-Rails & Field Birds - we had lots of encounters with these species except for the Sungrebe 😕 I didn’t expect the Wood-rail to be so personable. I think of Rail, in general, as hard to find & stealthy… these were not! I even had one in a tree and walking on a rope baracade.

Double-striped Thick-knee - a relative of the two Thick-knees I saw in South Africa. This one moves in a regal. It took us a few days to find one, but as is often the case, after that we had them in number, all over the place on the coast.

Southern Lapwing - our first encounter with this species was at the Rice fields when we were trying to find the Alpomado Falcon. We had several of them foraging in the field closer in. The lighting wasn’t great but the birds were cooperative! Also saw the a few times in the Caribbean Lowlands.

Rufous-necked Wood-Rail - I found this species fascinating, friendly and fun! We had them come right up to us at the Butterfly farm and at our lowlands lodge they were just wandering around, so you never knew when you would run into one. I am told that is unusual, but you couldn’t prove it by me.

Crazy bird in a tree -- they are NOT tree birds!

Guan, Ani+ - I was disappointed not to see the Great Curassow, the largest, but happy to get my first look at the a few of the others on this page, including the Black Guans which like to just fly across the road & disappear into the brush!

Crested Guan - Finally on our Lowlands boat ride we spotted this Guan in a tree -- so happy to get a chance to photograph it. This boat ride was fairly challenging because the driver was constantly repositioning the boat, so as soon as I got a bead on a bird, the boat moved. Ugh!

Gray-headed Chachalaca - how can you not love a bird called a Chachalaca...

Walking on "the rope"

Groove-billed Ani - This is a majestic bird with interesting grooves carved into it's bill -- very cool!

Caique, Oropendola & Bananaquit - All somewhat quirky birds, fell in love with the Oropendolas!

Montezuma Oropendola - a big bird (about the size of a Raven) with a great bill and lots of personality.

Chestnut-headed Oropendola - smaller and not as colorful as its cousin, but still quite charming to watch.

Bananaquit - I was more than a little shocked to see how small this species is. It's got a big name and a big personality in a little body!

Kingfishers - I like this family a lot and since we only have one in Rhode Island (Belted) which also occurs in Costa Rica, it was a pleasure to see most of these beauties on the water.

Amazon Kingfisher - One the larger Kingfishers still is not particularly large -- this one really likes to flick its tail.

Green Kingfisher - This one is pretty small but still bigger than the Pygmy. I think it has a nice intensity about it.

American Pygmy Kingfisher - the tiniest Kingfisher and usually difficult to spot, but this one was pretty cooperative.

Note the closed Nictating Membrane...

Waders - at least half of these species were just a pipe dream, but I'm still hoping to meet them someday!

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron - Love this bird! So much personality and someone said to me recently they thought its throat looks like a snake and it kinda does... This particular bird came up to our beached boat on the Tarcoles river looking for a handout. Which we did not have.

Boat-billed Heron - only saw one of these, but it was spectacular!

Reaching for food...

Maybe that wasn't such a great idea...

Nope -- really need to expel that (at least that is what we are thinking it was)