Ok, so this is indeed a toucan. Or part of the toucan family. I’m not entirely sure, you can Google it.

Keeping with the theme of this burgeoning newsletter, this bird definitely found me. Actually, a pair of these have visited us every other day or so. They are on a very strict routine, hitting the same trees, in the same order, looking for green berry looking things.

The first time these two visited our Airbnb backyard, I had to get on an early Zoom call shortly after. Terrible timing. My wife jumped in with the 600mm and got some great photos though. I’ll share the hummingbird snaps she got later.

We had our first proper birding outing this week; we got started nice and early. Our guide took us around the Nosara Biological Reserve for a couple hours - it did not disappoint.

We saw most of the fun creatures in the first 45 minutes. This hawk was circling before we even entered the Reserve.

The one and only bird I wanted to find was the ferruginous pygmy owl. It was reported on eBird the day before, and the guide pointed out a patch of trees where he knows them to hang out.

I didn’t get the greatest photo, but, this sighting alone was worth the 5am wake up time.

This playful little guy got in nice and close as well, but I couldn’t quite get a full-frame photo.

I plan to go back in the next few days. Knowing myself, I’ll probably stake out the trees where the pygmy owl lives in order to get a better snap.

Here is the full eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S302175833

During my first full day in Costa Rica, I had a zillion birds come visit our Airbnb’s back patio area. It was mid day, temperature in the 90s, and I had nothing but harsh light. Great for lounging, bad for photography; it didn’t matter though.

This was my first Common Squirrel-Cuckoo. One can only make these bird names up. Apparently, they eat ants out of trees:

This big guy played around in the backyard for a good 15 minutes, giving me some fun poses.

There was a whole squad out in the yard today, including this Black-headed Trogon. I wasn’t able to feature it’s honey-yellow belly in this photo.

The list goes on.

A Great Kiskadee hoping around a bit for fun.

And no, we don’t only have bird visitors. I got a nice 90 second video of this guy sunbathing. This one still really shows it all however - it wasn’t really keen to move from its spot in the sun.

Looking forward to day two.

I think it was so cold it didn’t mind as I went inside to grab my tripod, and slowly inched closer and closer in a zig-zag path to get photos and this video. I think it was my cunning approach that allowed me to snag these snaps.

There are a typically a pair of these milling about the yard on any given morning.

I was just surprised to see him so close.