Miles To The Wild

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

VIDEO

Although the dialogue is is Spanish, the footage of the birds is beautiful!

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Tara

The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, red, yellow and blue South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws.

Two subspecies present differing widths in their yellow wing band:

A. macao macao South American Scarlet Macaw, the nominate subspecies
A. macao cyanoptera (Wiedenfeld 1995) North Central American Scarlet Macaw

The Central American scarlet macaw is larger and has blue on its wings instead of green.

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

It is native to humid evergreen forests of tropical South America. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (1,640 ft) (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft). It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.

Red – Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Purple – Tambopata, Peru
Blue – Alta Floresta/Cristalino, Brazil

Because the Scarlet Macaw has such a large range, it makes it easier to plan a trip to see them in the wild. I have personally seen them at Carara National Park in Costa Rica (use a Central American award), Tambopata in Peru (use a nothern South American award) and Alta Floresta & Cristalino in Brazil (use a southern South American award). Carara can also be accessed by cruise ship passengers, a great way to get your feet wet if you are new to bird watching! Book a Panama Canal cruise that stops in Puntarenas.

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VIDEO

The Ara Project in Costa Rica releases some Scarlet Macaws who were bred to fly free and replenish the wild population.

The filmer cut off the best part, where the Chicos of Tambopata raid the breakfast table!

Yellow-naped Parrot (Amazona auropalliata)

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Tara

The Yellow-naped Parrot or Yellow-naped Amazon (Amazona auropalliata) is an Amazon parrot sometimes considered to be a subspecies of Yellow-crowned Amazon, Amazona ochrocephala (Gmelin, 1788). This one in the photo is a captive wild parrot who would have originated in northern Costa Rica.

Amazona auropalliata is found in Mexico and Central America, occurring along the Pacific slope of the isthmus in southern Mexico (Oaxaca and Chiapas), Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and north-western Costa Rica, the Bay Islands (Roatán and Guanaja) of Honduras, and the Caribbean slope in eastern Honduras and north-eastern Nicaragua (Juniper and Parr 1998).

Probably the easiest place to see them logistically is in the Guanacaste or Tarcoles area of Costa Rica. Use a Central American award to get you here. When I blog about Tarcoles, I will go into more detail about where to see them in that area.

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VIDEO

Nice mini-doco with some interviews in Spanish with English subtitles. I especially love how they are encouraging the local communities to support eco-tourism and leave the birds in the wild!

Brown-hooded Parrot (Pyrilia haematotis)

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Tara

The Brown-hooded Parrot (Pyrilia haematotis) is a small parrot which is a resident breeding species from southeastern Mexico to north-western Colombia. Until recently, it was placed in the genus Pionopsitta, which now is restricted to the type species, the Pileated Parrot. It is sometimes considered conspecific with the Rose-faced Parrot (P. pulchra). This species has been adversely affected by deforestation.

It is found in lowlands and foothills locally up to 1600 m altitude in forest canopy and edges, and adjacent semi-open woodland and second growth. The white eggs are laid in an unlined nest, usually a natural cavity in a tree.

Although their range extends from Mexico to northern Colombia, the easiest place to see this beautiful parrot is at Laguna del Lagarto Lodge in Costa Rica. Use an award to Central America to get to San Jose, then the lodge has a shuttle to transfer you there. It’s quite a remote area.

This species is presumed to have declined over much of its range due to deforestation, but it is still rated as “least concern” by IUCN.

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Cornell Lab of Ornithology

VIDEO

Birds Of Laguna Del Lagarto: Parrots, Toucans, Aracaris & Trogon

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Tara

Since there are so many photos, I am breaking this up into separate posts. There are other posts for information on how to get to Costa Rica & Laguna del Lagarto.

Bird List of Laguna del Lagarto

PARROTS

I highlighted in yellow the ones I saw. I didn’t get photos of the Crimson-fronted Parakeet or Olive-throated Parakeet. I’ll try to put the photos in order of this list as there are too many to caption.

TOUCANS & ARACARIS

SLATY-TAILED TROGON

The Birds Of Selva Verde & Sarapiqui Area

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Tara

I was really excited about the birding at Selva Verde because of the amazing bird list and superb guides they employ. We were up at the crack of dawn as usual for our birding walk with one of Costa Rica’s top birding guides, Alejandro Esquival. He is also the person who gives the lectures around 5pm in a little pavilion near the swimming pool to give you an idea of what can be seen in the area. Alejandro is also a skilled photographer and has some amazing images on his Flickr page. He did a fantastic job of finding most of our targeted species and some that were so well hidden we never would have found them on our own.

Our guide, Alejandro Esquival

Selva Verde Lodge has a checklist and more information on their website. They do a bird count every year around Christmas time as they mention on their blog. I have copied the parrot section here and highlighted in yellow the ones we saw both the evening before and during the guided walk.

This is one of the best places in the world to see the endangered Great Green Macaw in the wild and we were very lucky to see 2 flying over the swimming pool in the late afternoon.

MY PHOTOS

Sorry, most are pretty bad. The birds were far away and often backlit so I can’t even see the colours. I tried to identify most of them. I did get some good ones of the Crimson-fronted Conure with Alejandro’s help. At least he was perching nicely and holding still!

Montezuma Oropendula

Great Green Macaws

Toucan in flight

Swainson’s Toucan

Swainson’s Toucans

Hanging Bridge, Selva Verde

Swainson’s Toucans

Mealy Parrots

Greater Kiskadee

Swainson’s Toucan

Crimson fronted Conure

Mealy Parrots

Crimson fronted Conure

There’s a bird in here somewhere!

I think this is a female Blue-grey Tanager

Greater Kiskadee

Either Red-lored or Mealy Parrots, I can’t see the colours

This stream is a great place to see birds, just 10 minutes walk from Selva Verde Lodge

Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus)

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Tara

The Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus) is also known as Buffon’s Macaw or the Great Military Macaw. Two allopatric subspecies are recognized, the nominate subspecies is found in Central America to northern Colombia, while A. a. guayaquilensis is found in western Ecuador and possibly south-western Colombia.

The photo above from Wikipedia shows the bird up close in all his glory. I wasn’t so lucky with my photography as both my sightings were at a distance and came out blurry. At least I got to see them which was exciting in itself!

This macaw has a very limited range in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Costa Rica has the easiest places to see them in the Selva Verde/Sarapiqui area and near the Nicaraguan border at Laguna del Lagarto. Use a Central American award to San Jose, Costa Rica.

Great Green Macaws are the largest parrots in their natural range, averaging 85–90 cm (33–36 in) long and 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) in weight. They are mainly green and have a reddish forehead and pale blue lower back, rump and upper tail feathers. Tail is brownish red tipped with very pale blue. The bare facial skin is patterned with lines of small dark feathers, which are reddish in older and female parrots.

They are highly endangered and there are several conservation groups working to preserve them in the wild. If you would like to help this fantastic macaw survive, please visit these projects’ websites.

WORLD PARROT TRUST
WPT has provided support in the form of funds ($15,000 US) through the Great Green Macaw Fund.
Also see: http://www.parrots.org/index.php/ourwork/greatgreenmacaw/

Links to Other Project(s):
http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2005/07/great_green_macaw.html

http://www.thearaproject.org/project.php

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VIDEO

This was filmed near the Selva Verde Lodge. I wish I had a camera crew like this! The host, James Currie of Birding Adventures talks about a conservation project to protect the nesting trees of the macaws.

White-fronted Parrot (Amazona albifrons)

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Tara

The White-fronted Amazon (Amazona albifrons) also known as the White-fronted Parrot, or adopted slang term Spectacled Amazon is found throughout most of Central America.

We saw them in Belize at Belize Bird Rescue, Tikal National Park and Laguna del Lagarto in Costa Rica.

The White-fronted Amazon, at about 25 cm (10 in) long, is the smallest of the Amazon parrots. This species is named for the bright white patch of feathers on their foreheads, although the amount of white varies from individual to individual. They have mostly green plumage with some blue colouring on their outspread wings. They have bright red coloring around their eyes (in some individuals almost like spectacles) and blue coloring behind the patch of white on their foreheads.

They can be found in a variety of wooded areas and open country with trees such as moist, seasonal semi-evergreen and deciduous forest, pine woodlands, gallery forest, ranchland with stands of open woodland, savanna and arid tropical scrub with cacti. Up to 1850m (6068 ft).

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