I don’t normally post the very next day about the same two bird species, but oh my … what a morning! I started my birding at 6:20 am to both beat the heat (95F plus high humidity) and find the birds during their morning rounds. I started by looking for the Pale-Billed Woodpecker, and I struck gold. While watching one woodpecker, its mate unexpectedly flew in for a mating dance which I caught on video!

After the woodpeckers I left the Savannah habitat and visited the deep forest stream  crossing, and immediately a Black-Headed Trogon performed for me. Like I said previously, what a morning! We head back to Duluth tomorrow, and I am ready for some cold weather, but the birding was definitely hot!

Between birding in the morning, and riding the surf on a boogie board in the afternoon this has been a fantastic vacation … not to forget the Highlands Rainforest. Molly and I were supposed to take this trip right at the beginning of the Pandemic. Three years later this journey has been a treat, just delayed a bit. My own owlets are most likely started wondering where is “the owl guy”. I am looking forward to hikes in the Northwoods to visit my northern friends! Homeward bound now.

Pale-Billed Woodpecker
(video links for email subscribers … mating dance and drumming)

Both close-ups and some images which show the pale-billed woodpecker’s environment.

Black-Headed Trogon (video link for email subscribers )

Up and over the hill via the dirt road from Las Catalinas (4 wheel or all wheel drive required) there is the one and only one stream for miles and miles that still has water near the end of this Dry Season (April 2023). As in any extremely dry environments, water is a magnet. This morning I drove over and walked the road next to the stream. My car gave me the opportunity to retreat to an air conditioned environment with the 90+ degree heat (and super high humidity) overwhelmed me.  After a few minutes of sitting with the AC blasting, birding would be restarted.

My excitement of the morning was when I saw a quick flash of scarlet. I knew Pileated Woodpeckers did not range anywhere this far south … never being seen south of the United States. Some research on my Merlin app from Cornel revealed I was watching a pair of Pale-Billed Woodpeckers. The woodpecker were obviously living in a “savannah like” area across a dirt road from the stream (dry forest of the other side of the stream). Until I saw these gorgeous birds, I had no idea they even existed … obviously a lifer.

• One of my very enjoyable tasks while down here in Costa Rica is updating my Costa Rican Birding Book … The Birds of Las Catalinas (Free full copy PDF’s of Version 1 are available). While the major focus of the book is the birds of this region, Version 2 will also cover El Viejo Wetlands and the Rainforest Highlands. Full copies of Release #2 will also be freely available as a PDF Download.

Pale-Billed Woodpecker

Normally the lifer woodpecker would make for a fantastic day of birding, but as the late night TV commercials would always state … Wait, there’s more!

I had no idea that Black-Headed Trogons sometimes flock together, even during breeding season. While birding the stream near a ford that I was not willing to drive across on a very small dirt road I saw / heard five trogons. There may have been more, but this was the number of trogons I could confirm.

Singing Black-Headed Trogons (video link for email subscribers)

The entire region was scheduled for a power outage today which was scheduled to last from 8 am to 4:30 pm. The power cut-off came as scheduled and given the 95+ heat and humidity Molly and I decided on a 70 minute drive to visit a beach where we had vacationed 23 years ago (AC in the car). Upon arriving we discovered two things:

1. The Power was also out this far away
2. There was one small grocery store and beachfront restaurant with backup generators.

The grocery store provided me my Diet Coke fix (I need caffeine as much as you coffee drinkers)! The beachfront restaurant allowed Molly and I to trip down memory lane, and to just hang for hours over lunch a a drink, including beach walks.

We are now back at Las Catalinas and the power has returned. I am hanging out just below the AC vent! Over the past few days I have gone out birding about 6 am here at Las Catalinas. This allows me to bird before the heat and while the birds are active. Sunrise is at 5:20 am, but given the high hills to our east the golden orb does not start to show itself till 6:20 am.

Some Las Catalinas Birds … in alpha order

Black Vulture

Brown Crested Flycatcher

Gray-Breasted Martin

Great Kiskadee

Hoffmann’s Woodpecker

Orange-Fronted Parakeet

Ruddy Ground Dove

Rufous Naped Wren

Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Mocking Bird

White-Lored Gnatcatcher

White-Throated Magpie Jay