Sunday 18 October 2015

Scaled Antpitta....out of the blue

Juvenile Scaled Antpitta

The net ride amongst the Chinese whispering grass (aka.Cyperus Papyrus we think..) always looks special - and it produced that special bird yesterday
 A large Antpitta, weighed 96.2g ....and an amazing almost non-existant tail !


Scaled Antpitta is unkown in our area, though S & Sutch when describing the distribution say that it may have a local population in the Talamanca mountains, so great to find the Antpitta, and a juvenile too...


 The Antpitta certainly provided excitement to a very slow morning under a rain threatening sky. After one month in Costa Rica it appears that at our sites breeding has been delayed, presumably by the rains in June.
There are almost no juvenile Hummingbirds - we usually find many. But we have lots of very juvenile Ruddy-capped Nightingale Thrushes which usually are older by now.

Great looking adult hummers though....this a Green Violetear.

An adult male magnificent Hummingbird

 This juvenile female Slaty Flowerpiercer was going to be bird of the day, - until the Antpitta !

Flowerpiercers are often seen flying away from the flowers usually being chased off by the more aggressive hummingbirds.The peculiar bill is designed to pierce the base of the nectar tube thus a direct competitor with the Hummers !



Tomorrow is our last day's banding in the Highlands. A short post tomorrow with the final birds etc, and the highlight from today...another Highland rarity....



  - Rough-legged Tyrannulet...










No comments:

Post a Comment

Please feel free to post comments but there may be a delay as they are all moderated to avoid spam