The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) was a nice surprise this morning. It appeared briefly in the top of one of the driveway güititi trees as I sipped my morning coffee outside. This migrant from North America is rather uncommon and most of its appearances here in San Antonio de Santa Cruz have been in the month of October. It is considered a passage migrant, although some may stay throughout the winter months. Its white underparts and slender form immediately distinguished it from my usual garden visitors, and the bill and eye colour eliminated the even less common Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus).

Other species of interest in the garden lately are the large Green Hermit hummingbird, the Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera)…..

Male Golden-winged Warbler; photo taken at nearby Calle Vargas by Larry Waddell

…. and Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia), plus the middle-elevation Golden-olive Woodpecker (Colaptes rubiginosus):

John Beer’s photo of this female Golden-olive Woodpecker is from higher up the Turrialba Volcano slope at Rio Roca but it appears in my garden with some frequency