This bulletin will look as some large birds that, for the most part, are seldom seen by birders. They are in 4 families, herons, tinamous, cracids and screamers.
The heron is common throughout South America (SA). The Striated Heron (Buteroides striatus) is the counterpart in SA to our Green Heron. He is brownish and not rufous backed like his northern cousin.
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| Striated Heron |
The 36" Horned Screamer (Anhima cornuta) was a life bird for me. The screamers are a family of just 3 species, all in South America. Despite their chicken-like appearance, they are most closely related to ducks and geese. They have partially webbed feet and nest near water. An unusual feature unique to screamers is the fact that they have air cells under the skin that can be inflated. Wikipedia says these air cells makes the birds unattractive as a food source. However, another source states that this species is hunted for food and is very good eating. Anyway, on the Pacific slope, they are limited to a remnant population in a preserve south of Guayaquil where we saw a pair of them. I was able to get close enough to see and photo the bird and the white horn. The guide book states that the horn can be 'surprisingly hard to see in the field'.
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| Horned Screamer |
The tinamous are another New World family of 47 species of ground dwelling chicken-like birds. Again, these birds are very secretive and hard to see well. I got my first photos of a tinamou in Costa Rica this year. Some places feed, and have blinds to observe, these birds and Copalinga Lodge provided one. It was truly an experience to see 2 different species 20 feet away in the space of 15 minutes.
The 18" Gray Tinamou (Tinamus tao) is found in Amazonia and listed as very rare on the eastern slope. It is unusual in coloration as most tinamous are brown.
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| Gray Tinamou |
The 9" Little Tinamou (Crypturellus soui) is listed as common and has a huge range from Mexico to Brazil. However, despite being common, the guide book states that they are 'exceptionally difficult to see' and are most often heard. For the most part they are all brown, but the birds in northern Peru and southern Ecuador have gray heads as does this bird. I saw this species in Costa Rica, but was unable to get a photo.
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| Little Tinamou |
Lastly, the cracids (not crackheads) are large pheasant like game birds in the New World. There are 55 species and one occurs in south Texas with the rest in the tropics.They have 3 different names chachalacas, guans and currasows. There are about an equal number of each in the family.
The 23" Rufous-headed Chachalaca (Ortalis erythroptera) occurs on the west slope in Ecuador. A pair of birds hung around the lodge at Buenaventura.
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| Rufous-headed Chachalaca |
The 20" Speckled Chachalaca (Ortalis guttata) occurs on the east slope in Ecuador. A family group came to the banana feeders at Copalinga Lodge. This one was showing off his tail.
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| Speckled Chachalaca |
The 34" Crested Guan (Penelope purpurascens) is found on the west slope in Ecuador. This one was at Buenaventura where the guide says it is rare, despite being in a protected preserve.
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| Crested Guan |
The Sickle-winged Guan (Chamaepetes goudotii) occurs on both slopes with a marked size difference that strikes me as peculiar. The west slope birds are 21" and the eastern slope birds are 25" in length. They occur at 2700 to 8000' elevation. They have a bare blue skin on the face. This bird was at the Copalinga Lodge on the east slope.
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| Sickle-winged Guan |
Happy birding and photography,
David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com
photos copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald
To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.
I really enjoy wrens, Yes, they are mostly LBJs (little brown jobs) but they always seen so active and industrious. The forest wrens of the tropics are fiendishly difficult to even see, let alone photograph. So I was really pleased that my guides were able to find a number for me. In all wrens, the sexes are similar unless noted.
The first day, on the way from San Jose to La Selva, we found this 4" Ochraceous Wren (Troglodytes ochraceous) in the vines coiled around a tree as we were looking at some tanagers in the trees. It was pure luck as I just saw the movement and got a photo of the bird at eye level.
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| Ochraceous Wren |
The next day at La Selva, there were a pair of Band-backed Wrens (Campylorhynchus zonatus) nesting in some bromeliads on a tree trunk just outside the dining hall. The 7" bird is the same genus and similar to the Cactus Wren in the southwestern USA. Notice that their proximity to all the researchers has them both banded.
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| Band-backed Wren pair |
At La Selva, in the woods, we found a Black-throated Wren (Pheugopedius atrogularis). This 6" wren is all dark brown except for the black throat.
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| Black-throated Wren |
The last wren at La Selva was this 5" Stripe-breasted Wren (Cantorchilus thoracicus).It has a brown back and streaked face, throat and breast.
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| Stripe-breasted Wren |
At Savegre Lodge in the mountains, a pair of Gray-breasted Wood-wrens (Henicorhina leucophrys) were making a home.This 4" wren has a dark brown back, gray breast and streaked face.
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| Gray-breasted Wood-wren |
We had to to the paramo (scrub above the tree line at 11,000 feet elevation) to find the 4" Timberline Wren (Thyrochilus browni).The dots on the wings and white edging of the primaries are diagnostic.
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| Timberline Wren |
The last one was the common 4" House Wren (Troglodytes aedon). This bird is a permanent resident throughout Costa Rica except on the paramo.
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| House Wren |
The Cracidae family of birds is a New World family of large chicken-like game birds including chachalacas, guans and the most intriguing, curassows. These birds are hard to find except where protected from hunting in sanctuaries, national parks etc.
I had seen the Black Guan (Chamaepetes unicolor) on my first trip to Costs Rica in 1994 on the first morning of the trip. I definitely wanted to see it and get a photo this time. It is a resident of the mountains and IDed by blue facial skin, red legs and all black body. We found a pair on the first day as we drove over the mountains from San Jose to La Selva on the Caribbean lowlands.
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| Black Guan |
At La Selva, they had lots of 35" Crested Guans (Penelope purpurascens) and we saw several every day. I like the genus name of this bird. It is all brown with a crest and red skin on throat.
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| Crested Guan |
The last is the 36" Great Curassow (Crax rubra). I remember this bird well from my first birding trip to the tropics to Belize in 1993. The male is all black with a white belly, and a yellow knob on his face and a curly punk rock crest. The female is brown but we didn't see her. This bird was also seen at La Selva.
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| Great Curassow - male |
A close-up of his head shows the curly crest feathers and the peculiar yellow knob.
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| Great Curassow - male |
Happy
birding and photography,
David
McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com
photos
copyright 2006 - 2015 David McDonald
To
have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address
and ask to subscribe
