Towards the end of today’s mountain back ride over the Costa Rican Pacific Ocean hills I found a Streak-Backed Oriole in the process of building a nest. Orioles weave straw and grass on the very end of branches to create a 100% enclosed domicile!

My Canon Sx-60 takes photos at a rate of approximately 7 frames per second. Thus, you are looking at 2 seconds of nest building. This is one very active / busy bird!!! The first photograph is a close-up of the home building Streak-Backed Oriole. The other 13 images are the time lapse photos. (view a 47 second video of the same oriole building it’s nest)

Close-Up

Two Seconds of Nest Building

It is the time of the year for love! Birds are pairing off, and fighting for both mates and territory. At the end of this morning’s sunrise mountain bike ride two Turquoise Bowed Mot Mot birds awaited me on the gate that sets off the trailhead. Getting off my bike I followed the love birds till they finally posed for my camera.

At that point I heard a HUGE racket and watched as five male Streak Backed Orioles fought over one female. The young lady had plenty of attention including this male!

Finally, I had almost given up getting a good photo of a Black Headed Trogon. These birds tend to hang out high in a tree’s canopy which makes taking pictures real difficult. In addition, I had been told if I got real lucky a Trogon would come down low and turn is black back to me … revealing not black but beautiful turquoise and blue colors.

Per normal I headed off on my mountain bike shortly before 6 am. Even this early the heat index was already 98F. It will be good to get back to Lake Superior and its cool breezes! However, biking the trails to the tops of hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean allows one to look down on birds, or at least eye to eye for unique perspectives!

Today I finally got some good Maginificent Frigate bird images. I got up before the heat started rising which allowed me to watch them as they rose up from their island rookeries on the islands far below!

In addition I found four Great Kiskadees singing out and setting their territories, plus the unknown bird of the day which I shall name the Yellow-Breasted Striped Flycatcher!

Edit: Fairly certain the flycatcher is an immature Yellow-Bellied Elaenia. My thanks to Adam who worked this ID. The real ID appears to be a Olive-Sided Flycatcher, not the Elaenia!