Colours of southern Costa Rica

We are four days through six days of banding at our three standard banding sites in San Vito in the high valleys of the Coto Brus very close to the border with Panama.

This visit follows our visit last October, and a visit by our colleagues at Costa Rica Bird Observatory this March. Visits - though less frequent follow a similar protocol to our CES back home on the Teifi.
Now follows some of the more colourful and less often captured species. This Bay-headed Tanager was in fact the first one we have captured, this a hand painted adult...!

We catch c40 White-collared Manakins a season at our sites in the Caribbean Lowlands, this a fine adult male Orange-collared Manakin- the allopatric species of the southern Pacific Lowlands and foothills, we catch around 6 per year.

A couple of Tanagers species now.
This fine adult Golden-hooded Tanager, a bird we have only caught in pairs

unlike the Silver-throated Tanager, which we have encountered in small flocks, 9 being the maximum. The flocks being made up of various aged birds.

The White-tipped Sicklebill is a large Hummingbird and difficult to see. Note the white on the head and crown which is pollen dust, picked up as it feeds on tubular flowers like the Heliconia species.

The head of a Blue-crowned Motmot, a large very bright species with a deeply serrated bill. A species we hear regularly and often see around our bird table too.

Colourful words here -- the grey headed race of the Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, the Catharus thrush species of the middle elevations, and quite a common species.

We find two further Manakin species in our study area, the Blue-crowned Manakin and the White-ruffed Manakin, below the adult male. Adult males of all Manakin species are hard to find, and make up barely 15% of Manakins caught.

Slate-throated Redstarts are one of the few species that we find in both our Highland and San Vito sites. A classic species of the mixed flock, including North American migrant Warblers.

We found this Black-tailed Flycatcher in our study area where the near identical Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher is the more common. On the simple biometrics of weight, wing and tail length these features support the identification.

Not a colour in his name !
But a tiny smart Flycatcher  - the Scaly-crested Pygmy-Tyrant.

We found none of these c8.5g wonders on our visit last year but we have now found 3 on this visit.
What other changes will we find in our ever maturing study sites in San Vito.....