Many-banded Daggerwing

During our morning hike near Monteverde, Costa Rica, on 6 July, we photographed a Many-banded Daggerwing. This butterfly flitted through the roadside vegetation. The species is found from Argentina to Mexico and the West Indies. They frequently stray into south Texas, and, more rarely, to Kansas and  southern Florida. They are known, in the tropics, to undergo population explosions and mass migrations.

Neon Skimmer

Along the way on our 6 July Monteverde (San Louis) stroll, we passed a wet, weedy, seepy hillside full of dragonflies. Among them was this Neon Skimmer, clearly territorial, since it repeatedly returned to the same perch. The species is found in clean streams and ditches in mountains from Costa Rica into widely scattered areas of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (Paulson). We did not see courtship displays, in which the males fly with their tails raised high.

Thick-tipped Greta

“Greta morgane, the thick-tipped greta, is a day active ithomiine butterfly from the subfamily Ithomiinae” (Wikipedia). So now you know. This butterfly is common from Central America, the Caribbean north to Mexico. In 2004 a stray was recorded in Texas.

The roadside we explored near Monteverde, on 6 July, was full of butterflies. In fact, in July 2017, all of Costa Rica experienced high numbers of butterflies. It was kind of like a scene from “A Hundred Years of Solitude,” if you are familiar with that book.

We remarked on this butterfly’s transparent wing patches. The pink color you see is actually flower parts fallen from the trees. Their caterpillars feast on deadly nightshade, rendering both caterpillars and adults poisonous to birds. The birds, needless to say, avoid Thick-tipped Gretas.

Middle American Pearlwing

Unlike the dasher without a name in my last post, this little damselfly has a huge name. Around the dasher pond near Monteverde, Costa Rica, we photographed an immature, female Middle American Pearlwing. The species ranges from Mexico to Costa Rica. According to the IUCN Red List, pearlwings tolerate human habitat disturbance, are common, but little studied. Apparently all they need is a local water source. No data suggest pearlwing populations are declining.

Dasher without a Name

Also at the first pond we explored on 6 July were several dashers with no name! Our intreped guide, Dennis Paulson, still is in the process of naming this species! Soon, he hopes. He figures he still has 13 undescribed species in Costa Rica. Hopefully he’ll have them named before he publishes his book on dragonflies of the country.

Malachite Darner

We spent the morning of 6 July strolling along a dirt road through forests and fields owned by the University of Georgia/Costa Rica. We parked the bus and walked about a quarter-mile to a rushing mountain stream surrounded by forest.

Our first stop was at a pond in a small, forest-edged pasture—perfect habitat for the Malachite Darner that greeted us. This dragonfly ranges from southeastern Arizona to Argentina. This individual behaved typically for the species. It flew back and forth about six feet above the water. It flew between the pond plants and occasionally hovered. Getting a photo required patience and waiting as the ode repeatedly passed. The Malachite Darner gets its name from its green sides that resemble the color of the mineral, malachite.

Three-wattled Bellbird

We enjoyed the view from the Hotel de Montaña Monteverde. One of the joys of our dragonfly tour was the varied expertise of our traveling companions. I am not sure who heard the Three-wattled Bellbirds in the distance. We set up scopes and found several far away. Bellbirds are cotingas, a South and Central American bird family. I immediately identified these birds by their white upper-parts and chestnut bottoms. I tried to record the bellbird calls with my cell phone. I guess it is amazing I got anything at all. The second photo is what we saw without the scope, with a greatly enlarged insert in the lower-left corner. Still fairly small. The bellbird is in both images.

I can not tell you which of our days was the best of the tour. The sixth of July is a contender. That morning we met Dennis Paulson’s colleague, Bill Haber. They are writing a guide to Costa Rican dragonflies. Bill took us several miles down the mountain to a research station run by the University of Georgia. We parked in the middle of nowhere and walked about a quarter of a mile down a dirt road. In the next posts, I plan is to describe some of the dragonflies and butterflies we saw. Then I will talk about birds at our hotel. I will end with our amazing quetzal search the next morning.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawks follow the migrating songbirds out of the Northwoods. The last week I have been doing a land office business, banding robins. This occupation is curious because between 12 June and 12 October I banded no robins—not even young birds of this relatively common summer resident. (OK, it did not help that I was traveling during most of July.) Since late October, I’ve ringed over 100. On 30 October, I discovered this young female in my net among the robins. I was pleased by this photograph, taken by Erika with her Pixel XL phone and developed with Topaz Lab Studio. This software, at least in a basic format, is free.

Lesson’s Motmot

The afternoon of 5 July 2017 saw our checking into the Hotel de Montaña Monteverde. In the parking lot, a Lesson’s Motmot greeted us. One of its field marks is that its tail rackets have shorter stems than many other motmots. Check out the Turquoise-browned Motmot we saw earlier. The Lesson’s Motmot is common from southern Mexico to Panama. This species is similar to other motmots, such as the Blue-crowned Motmot. Until recently these two motmots were considered to be the same species. Now they and other South American populations are treated as separate species. All motmots flick their tails like clock pendulums.

The Hotel de Montaña Monteverde was definitely one of the one of the nicest we visited. The view across the mountains was spectacular and the birding, first rate. The sunset, as you can see in the last photo, after our rainy day was outstanding.

Black Guan

The “best” bird at the Monteverde Hummingbird gallery on 5 July wasn’t a hummingbird or a tanager—but a Black Guan. This large, arboreal, turkey-sized bird is only found in Costa Rica and western Panama.

Across their range, Black Guans are heavily hunted. In many areas, the guan populations are highly fragmented and some near extinction. Costa Rica made hunting illegal in 1988, and the species is fairly common near the Monteverde National Park and near other national reserves.