My second Christmas Count this year was at CATIE, the famous tropical agricultural research and education centre located here in Turrialba. This seventh Christmas Count (it was not held last year) was split into two ably led groups, and 16 new species were added to the Christmas Count list. As usual, I missed several of the 103 species of birds spotted or heard by our group, led by Daniel Martínez, but I became familiar with a part of the campus that I had barely seen before. The other group did better for adding rarities but we had some beautiful views of species typical of the lowest part of the Turrialba valley, not far from the Angostura Dam, with sugarcane fields, plantations and hedgerows.
One of these is the Red-breasted Meadowlark (Sturnella militaris), formerly called Red-breasted Blackbird. Richard Garrigues’ photo below shows the dashing male, while the female looks similar to the female Red-winged Blackbird so familiar to North American birders. While the latter species is confined to northern Costa Rica, the militaris is spreading on the lowlands of both coasts in the southern part of the country, also reaching elevations as high as 1300 m.
A Red-breasted Meadowlark sits up and grabs attention.
Our walk began with a flock of Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), a northern migrant which seems to like the brushy fields in this area. I have not found it in my home patch and the photo below dates from banding in CATIE’s sugarcane areas some years back. Today, only a couple of all-blue males were among the small group we found.
An immature male Indigo Bunting on its way to being all blue.
Most parts of the CATIE campus can bring sightings of Green Ibis (Mesembrinibis cayennensis) and so it was on count day. Very unexpectedly, however, a Sunbittern (Eurypyga helias) popped up in what was essentially a rock-strewn ditch with water flowing towards the canal. This was one of many firsts reported this year for the CATIE Christmas Count.
Though we saw few tanagers, we recorded 10 species of warbler, including at least 5 Golden-winged Warblers. This endangered species is surprisingly common in our area, both in migration and as a winter resident. Here is the list of my own sightings:
- Gray-headed Chachalaca
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- Little Blue Heron
- Cattle Egret
- Green Heron
- Black-crowned Night-Heron
- Boat-billed Heron
- Green Ibis
- Black Vulture
- Turkey Vulture
- Roadside Hawk
- Sunbittern
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Purple Gallinule
- Northern Jaçana
- Red-billed Pigeon
- Ruddy Ground-Dove
- White-tipped Dove
- Groove-billed Ani
- Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
- Collared Araçari
- Keel-billed Toucan
- Hoffmann’s Woodpecker
- Lineated Woodpecker
- Crested Caracara
- Yellow-headed Caracara
- Laughing Falcon
- White-crowned Parrot
- Crimson-fronted Parakeet
- Barred Antshrike
- Streak-headed Woodcreeper
- Yellow-bellied Elaenia
- Paltry Tyrannulet
- Common Tody-Flycatcher
- Yellow-olive Flycatcher
- Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
- Willow Flycatcher
- Black Phoebe
- Dusky-capped Flycatcher
- Great Crested Flycatcher
- Great Kiskadee
- Boat-billed Flycatcher
- Social Flycatcher
- Gray-capped Flycatcher
- Tropical Kingbird
- Yellow-throated Vireo
- Philadelphia Vireo
- Lesser Greenlet
- Brown Jay
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- House Wren
- Stripe-breasted Wren (voice)
- Long-billed Gnatwren (voice)
- Tropical Gnatcatcher
- Clay-colored Thrush
- Northern Waterthrush
- Golden-winged Warbler
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Tennessee Warbler
- Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
- Mourning Warbler
- American Redstart
- Yellow Warbler
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- White-lined Tanager
- Passerini’s Tanager
- Blue-gray Tanager
- Palm Tanager
- Golden-hooded Tanager
- Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
- Blue-black Grassquit
- Variable Seedeater
- Bananquit
- Yellow-faced Grassquit
- Buff-throated Saltator
- Black-headed Saltator
- Black-striped Sparrow
- Summer Tanager
- Indigo Bunting
- Red-breasted Meadowlark
- Melodious Blackbird
- Great-tailed Grackle
- Bronzed Cowbird
- Giant Cowbird
- Baltimore Oriole
- Yellow-billed Cacique
- Montezuma Oropendola
- Yellow-crowned Euphonia
- Yellow-throated Euphonia
- Olive-backed Euphonia
Birds for Beer 