Tawny-capped Euphonia Nest at Guayabo National Monument

Male Tawny-capped Euphonia (Euphonia anneae)

On a short trip to the road outside the Guayabo National Monument, I found two nice birds at the picnic area. First a rather tame Gray-necked Wood-rail (Aramides cajaneus) walking around with twigs in its beak, and then the nest of a Tawny-capped Euphonia (Euphonia anneae). The nest contained two hungry chicks with gaping red and yellow mouths, attended by a female. The nest is in a hole in a rotten branch half concealed by an epiphyte and is at almost eye level. I hope to return with a camera to see if I can get a nice picture. I can no longer trace the origin of the pic of the handsome male Tawny-capped euphonia above, but it’s surely from one of our visitors.

Birding on the road was very disappointing this time, since traffic from the community of Peralta, among others, can no longer reach Turrialba via the paved road that goes through Guayabo Abajo and Azul. That road is now cut (large mudslides, I believe) and those who work in Turrialba must now go via the Monument road and Guayabo Arriba. This means that a vehicle passes on average at least once a minute in the mid-afternoon. This has also increased traffic in our village of San Antonio, although most travellers prefer to go the longer, paved, route via Santa Cruz, avoiding our now awful road surface.

My day ended very positively, however, with an invitation to eat olla de carne at the house of the Angulo family next to the Monument. Delicious food and delightful conversation!

Here is my unusally short list of bird sightings from the afternoon visit to that location: