Monday 17 November 2014

Motmots, a Mango..and mountains next

One of several Blue-crowned Motmots sitting around the site today. What a great start to the morning  when...

Pauline walked back from a net round with one....
A stunning adult  complete with a full raquet tail.

A visit to net two and three hummingbirds. Predictably two were Rufous-tailed, but the third ....??
We quickly worked out that we had a juvenile, probably a female Green-Breasted Mango. Not that unusual and the species range is increasing, but not on my radar for our San Jose site.

 The rufous feathers around the throat are juvenile, and a moult in the primaries can be seen.

This Green-breasted Mango surprised me with a weight of 6.4g, slightly heavier than our more regular species. The Violet-headed Hummingbird that we saw yesterday is a 2.9g bird. From tomorrow we will find the occasional Magnificent or Violet Sabrewing, these will weigh c9g.  A bird more likely though is the the Volcano Hummingbird with the males weighing in at a staggering low of 2.3g

Violet-headed Hummingbird (Kim)
Our new home for the next 12-14 days is the CRBO  Banding Station at Madre Selva in the Highlands.
 At Madre Selva we band at three sites, all are at an altitude of c2400m. Yesterday the girls were suitably dressed for a visit to Braulio NP at c1000m....
Warmer clothes packed for tomorrow ?

Kim is from B.C. Canada, and joined us two days ago. Pauline is from Australia and has been banding with me in Tortuguero for the last month. Neither girls have been to the Highlands before, and I predict great birding and banding to tell....once we return to the land of the internet...!

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