BirdWatching Costa Rica

Chestnut-colored Woodpecker
Celeus cataneus

This beautiful woodpecker is a Caribbean lowland specialty in Costa Rica. It has a big showy crest, ass well the paler head is characteristic.

Woodpeckers have some amazing adaptations for their pecking and creeping habits:
A strong, chisel-like, pointed bill.
Zygodactyl toes, having two toes facing forward and two backward.
Short legs.
And a strong stiff tail feathers.

Slaty-tailed Trogon
Trogon massena

This is the only trogon in Costa Rica with an all dark tail with no pattern. Both male and female have orange on the bill, the males bill is all orange and the female's bill is orange on the base.

Trogons in general have long tails, short legs and short heavy bills, superficially trogons resemble parrots but have much smaller bills.

There are 39 trogon species in the world in 6 genera.

Trogons are monogamous and territorial during breeding season, usually solitary at other times.

The genera Trogon comes from the greek meaning fruit-eater, and massena refers to a French ornithologist and collector.

Acorn Woodpecker
Melanerpes formicivorus

Woodpeckers belong to the family Picidae, this birds are found in all continents, but notably absent from Australia.
Woodpeckers have a suite of adaptations that allow them to use their chisel-like bill to hammer into trees in search of invertebrate prey, as well as build tree holes they use as nest.

Melanerpes comes from the Greek meaning "black creeper" and formicivorus comes from the Latin meaning "ant-eating".

Violet-headed Hummingbird
Klais guimeti

The family Trochilidae, which are hummingbirds have about 360 species, of which 50 occurs regularly in Costa Rica.

This small hummer is easily distinguish for its white post-ocular spot and the violet forehead. This hummingbird is a common on low to middle elevations on the Caribbean slope, and less common in the Pacific slope.
Forages at small flowering trees mainly on the canopy of the forest and edges, as well visits gardens with abundant Stachytarpheta.