Bulletin 266 - Costa Rica 2016 #10 - woodpeckers, trogons, monkeys

This is the last of the Costa Rica series from my 2016 trip. Thanks again to my wonderful guide, Johan Fernandez who showed me many amazing birds and also taught me some photography tricks.

Trogons are 9-14" colorful birds that usually sit quietly and are fairly easy to photograph. That makes them popular with me!

The 11" male Black-headed Trogon (Trogon malanocephalus) has a black head, yellow belly and a blue eye ring.

Black-headed Trogon - male

The 9" male Black-throated Trogon (Trogon rufus) has a gren head with black throat anfd yellow belly and bill.

Black-throated Trogon - male

The 12" Lattice-tailed Trogon (Trogon clathratus) is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. I only saw the female. She has a gray head, red belly and finely barred tail.

Lattice-tailed Trogon - female

There were 2 melanerpes woodpeckers seen. The 7" Red-crowned Woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) has a red head and belly along with the streaked back typical of this genus. I though it was neat to photo him on a banana flower that matched his head.

Red-crowned Woodpecker - male on banana flower

A new species to photo was the 7" Hoffmann's Woodpecker (Melanerpes hoffmannii). The male just has a red cap on top of his head. It is found from southern Honduras to northern Costa Rica. The female has no red at all.

Hoffmann's Woodpecker - male

I got closer photos of a 13" Pale-billed Woodpecker (Camppophilus guatemalensis). The male has an all red head with a white eye. This is one of the 2 largest woodpeckers in Costa Rica

Pale-billed Woodpecker - male

The smallest woodpecker was also a new one for me. The 4" Olivaceous Piculet (Picumnus olivaceus). This bird was also in the Alexander Skutch preserve. The guides there knew where the nest hole was and the male was there with his head out. He is olive with a red forehead and spotted crown

Olivaceous Piculet - male in nest hole

A real treat was getting 2 new monkey species photos. The 42" Central American Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) has a brown body and darker head and limbs. We saw a troop one day and I got several photos.

Central American Spider Monkey

I did not see it while I was taking the photos, but one had a baby on her back.

Central American Spider Monkey - with baby

The other monkey was a life mammal. The 36" White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus). This distinctive monkey has a black body and cream chest and head with a bare pink face. There was a group of them and I had to walk through the bush to get a photo (always a scary thought to go off the trails). One stayed down almost at eye level, but the rest had climbed into the canopy. I got one photo and he too scrambled up the tree. I asked the guide, whether they were subject to skin cancer with the bare pink face. He didn't know. Well when I got home and developed the photo, he has the end of his nose gone. This could certainly be an injury from a fight, but it could also be typical of a skin cancer. I think he must have been the old man of the troop to stay down and assess the danger as I approached,. If so, then he certainly would be old enough to get skin cancer if they are susceptible to it. The life span is up to 50 years.

These are very intelligent monkeys and use tools frequently. They are the traditional monkey for the organ grinder and can be taught to assist paraplegics as helpers.

I was so close, this is the whole photo.

White-faced Capuchin with tip of nose missing

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 191 - Panama #2 - Motmots and Woodpeckers

I am sure you are all wondering where are the 'beautiful' colored tropical birds after the first Panama bulletin. Well here are the motmots. I put one on the blog as the header photo.

Motmots are a small new world family of colorful birds. There are only 14 species and they occur from Mexico to northen South America and Trinidad. Most have peculiar racket tails. They often sit motionless for long periods and may wag their tails from side to side like a pendulum. We saw 4 species on this trip. The sexes are similar in all species.

The Rufous Motmot (Baryphthengus martii) at 18" is the largest of the 4. It has a green back, blue wing edges, and rufous head and underparts. Also, it has a black mask and black breast spot. The racket tail on the long central tail feathers is visible.



Rufous Motmot

The Broad-billed Motmot (Electron platyrhynchum) is similar, but at 13", considerably smaller. The differences include a green chin, and the rufous doesn't extend as far down the belly. He also has a racket tail.


Broad-billed Motmot

The Whooping Motmot (Momotus subrufescens ) occurs from about the Canal Zone in Panama to northern South America. It is mostly green, with a rufous underparts, black face and bright blue crown. Here are a couple of photos.

Whooping Motmot

The Blue-diademed Motmot (Momotus lessonii) is similar, but differs mainly by voice. Its range is Mexico to central Panama.

Blue-diademed Motmot

Woodpeckers are familiar to most people, as they are a large family with 230 species worldwide. They can be found on all continents except Australia. We managed to photograph 5 species on the trip.

The Red-crowned Woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) is almost identical to our Red-bellied Woodpecker in eastern USA, but the ranges don't overlap and the birds are non-migratory, It is very common, and we saw it every day of the trip. Here is a male on a feeder eating banana.

Red-crowned Woodpecker - male

The Black-cheeked Woodpecker (Melanerpes pucherani) is another 7" woodpecker. He differs from the bird above by the black on the face and barring on the breast. Although this is a common bird, we saw only this single individual. The male has red completely over the head. The female has the red patch only on the nape.

Black-cheeked Woodpecker - male

The Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus) is a large (12.5") woodpecker of the same genus and very similar to the familiar Pileated Woodpecker of North America. Notice that the white line through the head and neck is narrower in this bird than the Pileated. The crest appears much bushier as well.

Lineated Woodpecker - male

The Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) at 13.5" long, is the largest woodpecker in Panama. The male has an all red head with white spot below the ear. Also notice the barred underside, better seen on the female below.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker - male

The female has a smaller amount of red with a few black feathers on the front of the crest.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker - female

Lastly is the beautiful 8" Cinnamon Woodpecker (Celeus loricatus). The sexes are similar except the male has red on the chin.

Cinnamon Woodpecker - male

Here is his partner. They were travelling together.

Cinnamon Woodpecker - female

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2014 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.