Costa Rica Highland birds

Back to the world of internet and a catch up of what we have been up to in the last  2 weeks at Madre Selva in the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica. Our base at 2,500 metres has 3 ringing sites each slightly different in habitat. Compared to our time on the Caribbean coast we caught few migrants and those that we did were mainly species that spend the winter in the lightly forested farmland

like Wilson's Warblers

and Black-throated Green Warblers.

One unexpected migrant to find in a net though was this Broad-winged Hawk

Among the  resident birds that we saw but didn't catch on our last visit was this Paltry Tyrannulet shown in the Lakeside habitat where it is found.

Collared Redstarts are frequently seen around the lake too

Along with Black-capped Flycatchers

Olive-striped Flycatchers

and Flame-throated Warblers.

Some birds that we caught that were more often heard than seen in the forest  included Black-faced Solitaire with a far-carrying flutelike song

Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager

Common Bush-Tanager

Large-footed Finch, both juvenile

 and adult,

Ruddy Treerunner

Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch

Spotted Barbtail

 the aptly named Yellow-thighed Finch,

and Spot-crowned Woodcreeper

The species we caught most of at Madre Selva was Ruddy-capped Nightingale Thrush

Some more Highland specialities in the next blog.....