New Costa Rican Birding Blog
Now Online
Lance
Barnett recently initiated a new web service for noteworthy Costa Rica bird sightings.
All birders, whether living in CR, or just visiting, are encouraged to post
sightings. However, although anyone can view the site, in order to post, you
will have to email Lance lbarnett@earthlink.net for an invitation to become a blog member. You
will also have to have a Google account. Both requirements are rather
straightforward matters, and I heartily encourage all readers to utilize this
new resource, as it promises to be an even better way of getting the word out
quickly than this venue, which I do not always get around to updating as often
as I should.
First Costa Rican Record of Savanna Hawk
15 Apr: I received a wonderfully understated message from Jerry
O'Donahoe asking, “Is a sighting of a Savanna Hawk Buteogallus
meridionalis in the Golfo Dulce lowlands this AM anything to get excited
about?”
As it turns out, “the sighting was at
some rice fields 2.5 miles south of Zancudo, which is south of
Golfito. Observers were myself and my wife Sharleen Squier, and two
non-birders, Pat Gleason and Jeannie Berger (who took the photo). The rice
fields were being readied for seeding with disc harrows and many egrets (cattle
and great), vultures and caracaras were present, but not many other raptors.
The bird was quite un-fussed at our approach (by car). It stood stock-still for
a long time. I finally shouted to encourage it to fly, which it did, to a
nearby fence post. It subsequently flew to the ground, giving us an excellent
view of the upperparts and the black wingtips. It's a lovely bird.”
Twenty years since the publication of A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica,
Stiles and Skutch have finally been vindicated after writing: “Savanna Hawk,
found from W Panama to C Argentina, will probably soon invade the Golfo Dulce
lowlands, as have other open-country species following deforestation in recent
years.”
Some Unexpected Species at Carara
09 Apr: Carara NP is one of the places that I
most frequently bird. In fact, while visiting with Shane and Katy Patterson, I
logged my 101st and 102nd field days there in just the
last ten years, for a total of 494 hours of observation. Given that amount of
effort, it’s a very uncommon experience for me to see something totally
new in the park. So, imagine my amazement upon looking up and seeing an adult Mangrove Black-Hawk Buteogallus subtilis when Katy announced that a raptor had just
landed above us, as we stood on the metal bridge over the Quebrada Bonita.
A very common species just a few kilometers to the west, I don’t remember
ever having seen a black-hawk in the forest at Carara. After a short perch, the
bird flew away downstream (to the west).
Stranger still, was looking overhead a minute or two later and noticing
a Tropical Parula Parula
pitiayumi foraging in the crown of a large wild cashew tree Anacardium
excelsum, along with a pair of Tropical Gnatcatchers Polioptila plumbea.
I recalled Paco Madrigal’s sighting of a pair of parulas in July 2007
somewhere along the same trail and my amazement at the report, but here was
another one!
10 Apr: The next day, while birding the Oxbow
Lake Trail, I spotted a dove just inside the forest that I thought might have
been a Gray-headed Dove Leptotila plumbeiceps. Unfortunately, the
bird flew off before we could get a sufficiently good look at it. Resigned to
that feeling of knowing that one will never be sure what the bird was, we
continued down the trail, but hadn’t gone more than 100 m when a dove
flew across in front of us and landed at eye-level a few meters into the
forest. This time I even got the scope on it and we all had excellent views of
what was unquestionably the first Gray-headed Dove I’ve seen in Carara!
Jay VanderGaast had a similar experience with a Gray-headed Dove on this same trail on 20
March 2007.
Nazca Booby Confirmed on Cocos
02 Apr: Felipe López visited Cocos
Island and took the accompanying photos of Masked Booby Sula
dactylatra (right, with egg) and 
Nazca
Booby S. granti (left). Both species of
booby were found on the small, rocky islet Dos Amigos Grande, about a kilometer
southwest of Cocos. In his report, Felipe mentioned that, since 1999, a small
resident population of Masked Boobies (some 20 to 30 individuals) has nested on
the islet—and nowhere else in the Cocos area, not even on the nearby
islet Dos Amigos Pequeño, which has very similar characteristics.
Elsewhere (e.g., Clipperton Island), Masked Booby nests on flat, sandy surfaces
and so it seemed odd that the species should choose to nest on a rocky
islet with abrupt topography—precisely the sort of situation that Nazca
Booby prefers for its nest sites. This led to the suspicion that perhaps Nazca
Booby might be present on Dos Amigos Grande, and hence the reason for
Felipe’s visit.
Felipe’s images prove the existence of
both species on Dos Amigos Grande, however, there is still no evidence that
Nazca Booby actually nests there, despite conditions that would seem suitable.
More Swallow-tailed Gull Sightings off Pacific Coast
From mid-March to mid-April, Bruce Mactavish
was acting as a marine mammal monitor on a seismic ship working off the Pacific
coasts of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He reported having “seen and photographed
five Swallow-tailed Gulls Creagrus furcatus—three off Costa
Rica and two off Nicaragua. Four were adults in breeding plumage, one adult
like but white head. Four fed around the ship at night for several hours each,
and one flew around the ship one time in broad daylight. I believe the first
Swallow-tailed Gull for Costa Rica was in 2006 (Mike Mulligan et al.). Being so
rare in Costa Rica I wonder if it has previously been recorded in Nicaragua.
Considering the time I've spent out here and how few and far between the five
individuals were, the species could be regular in small numbers without
previously being detected, especially if you weren't looking at night!”
Roadside Umbrellabird a Surprise at Cinchona
Mar 26: Coming up the road from San Miguel,
about 200 m before arriving at Cinchona, Paco Madrigal’s driver, Carlos,
stopped the bus for a large, black bird he saw perched near the road. To
everyone’s surprise, the “pava negra” turned out to be an
adult male Bare-necked Umbrellabird Cephalopterus glabricollis!
After admiring and photographing the bird for about five minutes, the group
continued on to the hummingbird mirador. As they watched hummers and
other species from the balcony, the umbrellabird flew past in front of
them—not once, but three times! On the third occasion, Paco ran out to
the street side of the building to see where the bird had flown, and discovered
it had landed about 100 m up the road in a fruiting fig tree, where he and his
group were able to view this spectacular creature for yet another good while.
Agami Heron Seen in Tarcoles Mangrove
Mar 20: While enjoying a mid-day Mangrove
Birding Tour with Luis Campos on the Tarcoles River, Paco Madrigal and his
group of birders were astounded to encounter an adult Agami Heron Agamia
agami, resplendent in full sunlight, in the mangroves!
When I did the tour a week later, 26 March,
there hadn’t been any subsequent sightings.
Dunlin Still at Chomes
Mar 15: Kevin Easley and Jason Horn stopped at
Chomes at low tide, “but waded barefoot in the mud on the mud flats and
were rewarded with American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus and
American Golden-Plover Pluvialis dominica, both new for Jason in CR, and then
Jason found the prize for me, a winter plumaged Dunlin Calidris
alpina—probably the same individual he had seen two months
prior. There were also about 30 Marbled Godwits Limosa fedoa there
and a cracking adult Reddish Egret Egretta rufescens.” Kevin took
this photo of the foraging Dunlin.
Solitary Eagle Reported at Aerial Tram
Feb 29: Gerardo Vega sent word that a guide
colleague at the Guápiles Rain Forest Aerial Tram had seen a Solitary
Eagle Harpyhaliaetus solitarius perched in the forest. When Gerardo
went by the spot about thirty minutes later, the bird was not to be found.
Rare Migrant Ducks Found on
Guanacaste Fish Pond
15 Feb: Jim Zook
reported two male Green-winged Teal Anas crecca on the catfish
ponds between Comunidad and Sardinal, on the road to Playas del Coco. This is
the first CR report of this rare NA migrant since 2000, when a male at Las
Concavas (behind Lankester Gardens) was the catalyst that sparked the Gone Birding
Newsletter.
Along with the two teal and some 1,500 Blue-winged
Teal Anas discors, Jim also found five female Northern Shovelers A.
clypeata and a female Northern Pintail A. acuta. The birds
were on ponds not visible from the main road, but Jim says that Rob Willis, the
manager of the restaurant and the son of the pond owner, is happy to let
birders on the property as long as they ask permission first. (It would also be
appropriate to 
patronize the restaurant.)
28 Feb: Carlos Jiménez went to check
out the ponds and in addition to one male Green-winged Teal and a male and female
Northern Shoveler, spotted a male Cinnamon Teal A. cyanoptera.
16 Mar: Kevin Easley and Jason Horn paid a
visit to the site and, along with the abovementioned birds, added a female
Green-winged Teal to the list of rarities now reported. Jason picked it out of
a large flock of Blue-winged Teal in flight. Kevin also took the accompanying
photo of the Cinnamon Teal and reported two “separate Jabirus Jabiru
mycteria closer than I have ever seen here in CR.”
Golden-cheeked Warbler Returns
to El Cedral
09 Feb: While leading a
Birding Club of Costa Rica outing to El Cedral (Lat 9.83979, Lon -84.1433), in
the Cerros de Escazú, Dan Keller logged his 700th bird
species for the country: Golden-cheeked Warbler Dendroica chrysoparia. Unfortunately, I
didn’t get more detailed information of the sighting. However, if the
bird was a female (so far, the majority of the sightings in CR have been),
there’s a strong likelihood that it was the same individual that Robert
Dean saw last spring on a BCCR outing to the same site. At any rate, it’s
the first time that this rare NA migrant has been seen again at the same site a
season, or more, later.
Now that
this species is illustrated in our new field guide, it will be interesting to
see if more people report the species. I say this because of how the mind tends
to work: one sees what one knows, to a great extent. The problem with making a
correct ID of this species is highlighted in the reports of Jim Zook’s first record for CR,
and my second
record.
For reports
prior to these, please check previous Costa Rica Rare Bird Reports:
For reports
prior to those, please check the Gone Birding
Newsletter.
Have you
seen a rare bird in Costa Rica, or a species in an unexpected locality, or
exhibiting odd behavior? If you have any noteworthy sightings, I (and the rest
of the birding community) would appreciate hearing about them. Please send
reports to Richard Garrigues gonebirdingcr@gmail.com and include pertinent details such as
location (as precise as possible), date, time, and observers’ names. If
you have digital images, all the better; however, please send images at file
sizes of less than 500 kb.
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