During breeding season, male Red-legged Honeycreepers (Cyanerpes cyaneus) are fairly easy to spot with their bright red legs, sapphire blue body, and turquoise crown. In the off season, however, they look more like the olive green females of the species, but keep their black wings and tails.
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The author of my fiercely scientific guidebook about amphibians and reptiles in Costa Rica doesn’t believe in common names. “Poison Frogs of the Genus Phyllobates” is about as close to a vernacular description as I can find in the text for this shiny little gem. This particular specimen (Phyllobates vittatus) was found in a tiny mud cave in the Corcovado National Park by expert guide, Nito. The species is endemic to the area near the Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce, and so I’ve assigned it the not-very-scientific appellation “Golfo Dulce Poison Frog.”
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With the discipline of a yogi, this Bare-throated Tiger Heron holds its pose and warms its wings in the evening sunlight near Tortuguero.
Bare-throated Tiger Herons (Tigrisoma mexicanum) are distinguished from other tiger herons by the yellow skin below their long beaks. These striped birds are common in the low wetlands, marshes, and mangroves, of Costa Rica, especially on the Caribbean side.
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Central American Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) are found mostly in Costa Rica’s protected areas of primary rain forest. Their arms are longer than their legs, and they have no thumbs on their hands, which makes it possible for them to brachiate, or swing branch to branch with only their arms. They have an incredibly strong prehensile tail with a palm-like pad on the end. When these primates maneuver through the forest canopy looking for ripe fruit, they often get all five limbs in action, and truly look like spiders in a web of branches.
This Central American Spider Monkey demonstrates its full arachnid-like range, using arms, legs, and tail to travel through among the slender branches of the rainforest canopy.
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Eight manakin species live in Costa Rica, but within somewhat separate and limited territories. Red-capped Manakins (Pipra mentalis) are perhaps the most common, located on much of the Caribbean slope as well as the southern Pacific region, where this one was photographed. A dimorphic species, the males have shiny black bodies, bright red hoods, and yellow thigh feathers, while the females are olive green. These little woodland birds with stout beaks are primarily frugivorous, meaning they mostly eat fruit.
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Mouthless Crabs (Gecarcinus quadratus) are sometimes called Jack-o-Lantern Crabs for the three orange spots that make a face-like pattern on the front of their shells. These colorful land crabs are found along the Pacific, usually at night, rummaging around in the sand and underbrush of the coastal forests. This one ventured out into the daylight to be photographed on the large root of a tree in the rainforest of Corcovado.
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Snowy Egrets (Egretta thula) can be distinguished from other white herons in Costa Rica by their slender black bill. They also have black legs with yellow feet, which aren’t visible on this specimen that I found wading in the shadows one morning in Torguguero.
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Apparently stuffed, a motionless American Crocodile holds his next bite – a large fish – in his toothy jaws.
Crocodilians, along with birds, are the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs. The American Crocodile can be found in large rivers and streams of Costa Rica, and often in the tidal, brackish water where rivers meet the sea. This crocodile was resting on a flat of mud one evening near the mouth of the Tortuguero River.
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There are two races of the Variable Seedeater (Sporophila americana) in Costa Rica: one on the Caribbean side, and one, like this one with a white belly and rump, on the Pacific side of the country. The brown females of both races are identical. This fellow was chirping on the barbed wire that guards the airstrip in Carate on the Osa Peninsula.
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With feathers glistening in the dappled sunlight of the secondary rainforest, a male Black-throated Trogan proudly sits at attention.
Of the ten Trogan species in Costa Rica, the Black-throated Trogon (Trogon rufus) is the one I’ve seen most frequently. Dimorphic, the male is easily identified by the brilliant green head, yellow belly, and, of course, its black throat. Trogons are generally sedentary, and like to sit still on branches. As long as they aren’t startled, these handsome birds can be observed for quite awhile. Their mates are typically nearby, but often out of view.
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