Various (reasonable), Costa Rica (1 Viewer)

[opisska]

Here I selected photos from Costa Rica, where I can't figure out the ID, but the photo is itself reasonable (you may notice that one hummingbird slipped by the first filter). The birds on 1 and 2 and the one on 8 are especially puzzling to me, because there is a lot of field marks, but nothing really fits ... thanks for any suggestions!

Locations:
1,2 - (same bird) - San Gerardo de Dota
3,4,5,6 - Osa near Sierpe
7 - Osa, Rancho Quemado
8 - Silent hill area, Turrialba
9 - around Quepos

 

[mjh73]

1 & 2 maybe a young Sooty-capped Chlorospingus?

 

[opisska]

1 & 2 maybe a young Sooty-capped Chlorospingus?

Indeed that's the only idea we had based on out book - the head pattern is simply super distinctive. But it's not drawn there juvenile and there are virtually no photos online of that, so we weren't sure if it actually can look like this.

 

[mjh73]

This one looks a good match for your bird Sooty-capped Chlorospingus Macaulay Library ML148934271

 

[lgonz1008]

3 looks like Olive-throated Parakeet
6 looks like a Shiny Cowbird
9 is a Ruddy Quail-Dove

 

[Butty]

8. Either paltry tyrranulet or slate-headed tody-flycatcher.

 

[Andy Adcock]

3 looks like Olive-throated Parakeet
6 looks like a Shiny Cowbird
9 is a Ruddy Quail-Dove

Is it a female?

 

[lgonz1008]

Is it a female?

That's what I'm thinking, especially since the Central American variety is very pale in the female while the male is almost red at times.

Here's a photo from a female Ruddy Quail-Dove in Costa Rica (helps that it's a heavily birded country):

ML158272001 - Ruddy Quail-Dove - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML158272001; © Guillermo Saborío Vega; Puntarenas, Costa Rica

macaulaylibrary.org

 

[Andy Adcock]

That's what I'm thinking, especially since the Central American variety is very pale in the female while the male is almost red at times.

Here's a photo from a female Ruddy Quail-Dove in Costa Rica (helps that it's just a heavily birded country):

ML158272001 - Ruddy Quail-Dove - Macaulay Library

Macaulay Library ML158272001; © Guillermo Saborío Vega; Puntarenas, Costa Rica

macaulaylibrary.org

It's a pretty uncommon bird in CR.

 

[lgonz1008]

It's a pretty uncommon bird in CR.

It is, but doesn't mean it's impossible to find, probably one of the most widespread Quail-Doves and one that is usually easier seen in their range compared to more limited range species (it's the only one I've seen so far in my limited time in the Neotropics).

 

[THE_FERN]

8. Either paltry tyrranulet or slate-headed tody-flycatcher.

it's the tyrannulet [=mistletoe tyrannulet, Z. parvus]

 

[THE_FERN]

4: best guess is mealy parrot
5: yellow-bellied elaenia

 

[opisska]

#3-#4: how sure are the guesses? I can't really decide about either ...

#5 - YBE really makes sense, I was just quite unsure when I only see one side of the bird. But the crest and belly alone are quite good, aren't they?

#6 - after seeing a thousand of them, I still don't recognize a Shiny? In my defense, they are quite rare in CR and our book has them as rarities. But there was a clear female nearby, so I should have connected the dots (female Shiny really stands out against the rest of CR birds).

#8 - We were thinking the tyrannulet as well, but the bill seemed a bit long - but that's just so hard to judge if you don't know the birds, so I happily count it, when you guys approve it!

#9 - Ruddy Quail-dove may be an uncommonly seen bird, but it seems we have seen at least 3 different individuals. Apparently it's a bird really suited for IR searching The other one we have is a clear male with all the marks, so I was confused with the pale ones a lot.

 

[lgonz1008]

#3-#4: how sure are the guesses? I can't really decide about either ...

#6 - after seeing a thousand of them, I still don't recognize a Shiny? In my defense, they are quite rare in CR and our book has them as rarities. But there was a clear female nearby, so I should have connected the dots (female Shiny really stands out against the rest of CR birds).

#9 - Ruddy Quail-dove may be an uncommonly seen bird, but it seems we have seen at least 3 different individuals. Apparently it's a bird really suited for IR searching The other one we have is a clear male with all the marks, so I was confused with the pale ones a lot.

3 led me to think Olive-throated due to that long tail and prominent white around the eye which is only found in that parakeet species in Costa Rica

6 Shiny Cowbird is honestly a pain where I live to because it's a recently colonizing bird, so for every thousand Brown-headed Cowbird, you have one Shiny Cowbird in the mix. So you get used to IDing them most easily by the males (not the females) in South Florida since the males have an all black head and a conical bill. The fact you had a female Shiny Cowbird nearby confirms the ID a bit more.

9 Sexual dimorphism isn't too common in quail-doves as it would be in other birds, but the trend tends to be pale female and vibrant male. Ruddy is uncommon in most of their range, but if you put effort, are in the right habitat and visit the places that haven't been too trafficked recently due to Covid, it's not unlikely to find this bird, since it likes almost any forest that has a decent understory.


Great birds overall, I'm glad your Costa Rica trip gave you so many great birds to see. Looking forward to a trip summary (if you plan to make one of course).

 

[opisska]

Thanks! The parakeet does make indeed good sense. At this point we have IDed most of the birds from the trip and it's 182 birds from which 112 are lifers. That's clearly a small fraction what a dedicated birding trip to Costa Rica would do, as the country is really perfect for birding, with extremely easy access to many different habitats that all have the "proper" tropical bird diversity, despite the area being so small - but we have, as is usual for us, spent a lot of time just exploring unknown places and looking for mammals, so our numbers are not really indicative. What was impressive to me though was just the quality of the birds: we have seen a lot of species about which I used to think that they are only observable in some remote corners of the rainforests - Sunbittern, Sungrebe, two species of Macaws, two species of Puffbirds, a Manakin, an Antpitta, the Quail-doves etc... I will do some report soon when all the ID questions are settled.

 

[njlarsen]

I am not sure about 3: I see orangey primaries where olive-throated should have bluish. Additionally, what about range? Ebird has one single observation on Osa if that is where this was from.

How about Crimson-fronted?

Niels

 

[opisska]

The Crimson-fronted that we saw elsewhere had a really prominent red patch under the bend in the wing, which I don't see here - they were actually what I considered first for those, but dismissed for this reason.

 

[Andy Adcock]

it's the tyrannulet [=mistletoe tyrannulet, Z. parvus]

Doesn't the bill look a bit big?

 

[Andy Adcock]

4: best guess is mealy parrot
5: yellow-bellied elaenia

I think you'd see the yellow tail end, even in these shots?

I attach one of mine from CR.

 

[THE_FERN]

Doesn't the bill look a bit big?

No don't think so. if it were the tody-fly it'd be a lot longer. I see this as short and stubby. My immediate reaction when I saw it was tyrannulet and I've just checked pics of the tody fly and remain of the same mind. (But of course I could be wrong.)