The first time I saw a hummingbird was in February 2019 in the famous crooked street of San Francisco. Before that, I had always wanted to see a hummingbird and would desperately search for them at various places in India. Somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew that there are no hummingbirds in India, but I was in constant denial of this. During our Costa Rica tricks we saw lot of them and that too
The fact is that hummingbirds are only found in the Western Hemisphere. If you see a hummingbird-like creature in the Eastern Hemisphere, it is most likely a sunbird. Like Hummingbirds, sunbirds are tiny, pretty, and have pointed beaks for feeding on nectar. But apart from these similarities, both these birds are fundamentally different. While hummingbirds are closer to swifts, sunbirds are closer to crows. Hummingbirds hover over flowers to sip on nectar, whereas sunbirds like to perch close to the flowers to consume the nectar.
There are 341 known species of hummingbirds in the world. The smallest of these is the Bee Hummingbird, which is about 5-6 cm in length and weighs about 1.5-2.5 grams. This hummingbird is found in Cuba and is the smallest bird in the world. The largest hummingbird is the Giant hummingbird, which can reach a length of about 23cm and can weigh up to 24 grams. This bird is found on the eastern coast of South America. The Bee Hummingbird flaps its wings at the rate of 80 beats per second. In comparison, the Giant Hummingbird hovers at the rate of 15 beats per second. The larger the hummingbird, the more energy it consumes to hover.
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However, we digress. Neither the bee hummingbird, nor the giant hummingbird is found in Costa Rica. However, Costa Rica is home to over 50 different species of Hummingbirds, and we were fortunate enough to see about 15 of them. We saw hummingbirds around Irazu Volcano near San Jose, in Monteverde, and at Papa Gayo peninsula.
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The first Hummingbird we saw was a fiery-throated hummingbird on our way to Irazu Volcano. This medium-size hummingbird was perched on a branch right next to the road. We just happened to spot it from our moving cab, and the bird was generous enough to let us photograph it. A fiery-throated hummingbird can reach about 11cm in length and weigh about 5.6 grams.
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We also happened to spot the tiny Volcano Hummingbird, though it was too small and quick for us to photograph. It is easy to mistake the Volcano Hummingbird for a wasp because of its size and speed. This hummingbird can reach the length of 7.5 cm and weight of about 3 grams. At lower elevations the Volcano Hummingbird is replaced by its relative, the Scintillant Hummingbird.
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It was outside the Monteverde National Park that we saw the maximum variety of hummingbirds. One remarkable hummingbird that we saw here was the Stripe-tailed Hummingbird. This is another medium-sized hummingbird that can reach a length of 10cm and weight about 4.3 grams. This bird is metallic green in color and has rufous-cinnamon-colored underwings.
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Another medium-sized hummingbird we saw around Monteverde was the Lesser violet-ear. This is a glittering green hummingbird with very conspicuous violet patches on both the cheeks. This hummingbird can reach a length of 12 cm and weight of 5.6 grams. This hummingbird and its relative, the Mexican violet-ear, were earlier categorized into a common species known as the Green Violet-ear. This has now been split into two.
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We were also able to spot the Green-crowned Brilliant Hummingbord, which is characterized by a straight pointed bill and dark spots on its throat and chest (female). Another identifying feature of this hummingbird is the white spot behind the eye. It is primarily a forest dweller, but can also be seen at the fringes of the forest. This is one of the larger hummingbirds, with male growing up to 5.1 inches and weighing about 9.5 grams.
Another hummingbird that we spotted was the Ruby-throated hummingbird. This is a migratory hummingbird that likes to spend the summer in North America and Winter in Central America. It migrates across great distances. Considering its small size, this sounds like a significant feat. It is a medium-sized hummingbird with length of up to 9cm and weight of up to 6 grams.
We also spotted several other hummingbirds, but clicking them was difficult. These are tiny creatures that move really fast and you need to have a really good lens and camera to do justice to these beautiful creatures. But we consider ourselves lucky that we were able to manage whatever we could. I still wish we had these birds in India as well, but I guess we would need to manage with our sunbirds :).
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Blue-Throated Toucanet |
One of the reasons I was really excited about Costa Rica was its birds. From what I had read, I pictured a Utopian world where colorful birds would be flying over our heads, singing beautiful songs. My imagination had built all this up to the extent that I was afraid that I would be disappointed upon getting there.
When we landed in San Jose, I was hoping to start seeing these exotic birds immediately. And we were in fact greeted by three different songs. It took us a few minutes to figure out the source of the songs. And one by one we managed to trace the songs to the singers. The trail, however, all led to one single source - the Great-Tailed Grackle, also known as the Zanate. This versatile bird is often considered a pest because of its loud vocalizations and craftiness. It feeds on grains and can damage agriculture. However, the San Jose city was musical because of the songs of this bird. While there were a few other birds too, the Grackle by far overshadowed them.
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Great-tailed Grackle |
It was when we went to the Irazu volcano, when we saw a variety of birds, including a bunch of hummingbirds. We have already talked about the hummingbirds at length in another post. Here we will talk about other birds. Let's start with the Motmots. These colorful birds belong to the same family of birds as the kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. These birds are a common sight in Costa Rica and you will often find them sitting on the power lines along the roads. The birds nest on the ground and are seen as commonly in the cities as in the forests. And since these birds are not too timid, we managed to capture some good pictures. One particular motmot, in fact, came and sat very close to the trail we were following in Monteverde and struck some beautiful poses.
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Turquoise-Browed Motmot |
In Costa Rica, we saw two types of Motmots in San Jose as well as in Monteverde - the turquoise-browed motmot and the blue-diademed motmot (also known as Lesson's Monteverde). Both these species have a racket tail, making them quite easy to identify even from a distance. The Turquoise-browed motmot has tail feathers that are bright blue and black in both female and male. In the male motmot, this tail is often the key to success in mating, whereas both male and female motmots also use a wag-display motion to warn of the presence of predators.
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Turquoise-Browed Motmot (seems to have lost its raquet tail) |
The Turquoise-browed motmot's body is mostly green-blue with rufus back and belly. It has a turquoise blue patch on head and cheek. This is a medium-sized bird that feeds on insects and small reptiles. Poison-dart frogs also find themselves being ingested by these birds.
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Blue-Diademed Motmot (Lesson's Motmot) |
The blue-diademed motmot has a blue-green body. It wears a black mask with bright-blue band around it. The blue-diademed motmot is a little harder to sight than the Turquoise-browed motmot because it likes to dwell in dense forests. The tail racquets too are smaller and less dramatic than those of the Turquoise-browed motmot.
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Blue-Throated Toucanet |
Next, let's talk about the toucans and toucanets. While we were only able to see one single toucan, that also from a distance, we were especially lucky when it comes to sighting toucanets. On our very first day in Monteverde, Toucanets made an appearance right outside our homestay. These turned out to be the blue-throated toucanets.
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Emerald Toucanet |
The bill is large, though much smaller than that of a toucan. The upper mandible is part yellow. They have a blue patch around the base of the beak and the throat. The body is various shades of green. The vent and tips of the tail are rufus. We again came across toucans inside the Monteverde cloud forest. This time it was most probably the emerald toucanet, though we could not be sure because these were moving about very fast and were at a distance.
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Orange-Bellied Trogon |
Trogons were another species of birds that we came across in Costa Rica. We saw this bird in Monteverde as well as in Papagayo peninsula. The bird is large and has an orange belly. This was earlier categorized as a subspecies of the collared trogon, but is now considered a morph instead. The only characteristic that can be used to differentiate between the orange-bellied trogon and the collared trogon is the color of the belly. It is lighter in orange-bellied trogon and much brighter in collared. The neck and back of the orange-bellied trogon is blue-green.
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Resplendent Quetzal (Male) |
Another bird of the trogon family that we were fortunate enough to sight was the Resplendent Quetzal. This bird needs no introduction. This bird attracts myths and tourists alike. You may find this difficult to believe, but you only have to see this bird once to know what I mean. The bird's plumage is such that it seems to change colors in different lights. The male is so splendidly colored that it is difficult to believe that such a bird can exist.
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Male Resplendent Quetzal at its man-made nest |
We were hoping that we would run into this bird in the cloud forest of Monteverde. Our time in the reserve was almost about to end and we were fast losing hope, when I decided to ask a random tourist whether they had had the opportunity to sight the Resplendent Quetzal. And that gentleman broke into a wide smile and shared a photograph that he had managed to click. The sighting had happened a at a short distance from where we were standing. He gave us detailed instructions about how to get there.
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Resplendent Quetzal (Female) |
We reached the spot and were able to see the nest. However, the Quetzals (male or female), were nowhere to be seen. We waited around the area for about 1.5 hours when we saw first the female and then the splendid male. Quetzals are attentive parents and do not leave their nests unattended for too long. We knew this and were confident that we would be able to see them. And thank God we were not disappointed. One of the main reasons to go to Monteverde was to see this bird. Our goal was reached.
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Female Resplendent Quetzal at the nest |
During our day excursion to the Jaco beach, we were fortunate enough to see the Scarlet Macaw. As is common, we heard the bird before we saw it. Its rude screech made us stop in our tracks and search the canopies overhead. Despite its bright red, blue, and yellow plumage, it wasn't easy to sight this bird. It was out their in plain sight and still managed to camouflage itself. But our patience was rewarded and we soon saw this big parrot looking down at us. Clicking a good photo was another challenge and our camera didn't help much. We did the best we could and moved on.
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Scarlet Macaw looking down upon us |
In this part, we have mostly talked about the bigger birds so far, but Costa Rica is home to some really beautiful smaller birds. We will talk about those in the next post. In the meanwhile, we will look forward to your comments on this. And if we have made a mistake in identifying any birds, please do feel free to correct us.
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