Hi all,

Delia and I have been down here at Rancho Naturalista in Costa Rica for the past week (they offer full-week specials) and have been really working hard! After all, a tropical birding vacation is nothing like those tropical vacations shown in the posters with a beach, a palm tree and a good-looking but pathologically-lazy couple just strolling along, ignoring birds.

Rancho Naturalista is a Lodge that specializes almost totally in birding, with great food and a really nice staff (Book through Costa Rica Gateway 1-888 246 8513).
Anyway, here is a list, most of the birds are from the grounds owned by Rancho but we had a few trips involving autos including Tapanti National Park, from where we added a few, and we got a few in San Jose and on the drive up here. Rancho, btw, is at 3500 ft. in the Caribbean slope.

1. Least Grebe
2. Cattle Egret
3. Green Heron
4. Blue Winged Teal
5. Turkey Vulture
6. Black Vulture
7. Swallow Tailed Kite
8. Barred Hawk (this is Black Chested Hawk in the book, a really stocky raptor with a loud voice; over Tapanti)
9. Bat Falcon
10. Gray Headed Chachalaca
11. Sun Bittern (seeing this bird walking up a rocky creek, spreading its wings to fly now and then, might have been the highlight of 42 years of birding?I?ve seen plenty of pictures but wasn?t prepared for the effect of this bird opening its wings).
12. Spotted Sandpiper
13. Red Billed Pigeon
14. Short Billed Pigeon
15. Ruddy Ground Dove
16. White Tipped Dove
17. Purplish Backed Quail Dove
18. Crimson-Fronted Parakeet
19. Sulphur-Winged Parakeet
20. Brown Hooded Parrot
21. White Crowned Parrot
22. Squirrel Cuckoo
23. Groove-Billed Ani
24. Pauraque
25. White Collared Swift
26. Vaux?s Swift
27. Green Hermit
28. Stripe Throated Hermit (used to be Little Hermit)
29. Violet Sabrewing
30. White Necked Jacobin
31. Brown Violet-ear
32. Green Breasted Mango
33. Violet Headed Hummingbird
34. Green Thorntail
35. Black Bellied Hummingbird
36. Violet Crowned Wood Nymph
37. Rufous Tailed Hummingbird
38. Snowcap
39. Red Footed Plumeleteer
40. White Bellied Mountain Gem
41. Green Crowned Brilliant
42. Purple Crowned Fairy
43. Violaceous Trogon
44. Collared Trogon
45. Blue Crowned Motmot
46. Rufous Motmot
47. Rufous Tailed Jacamar
48. Red Headed Barbet
49. Prong Billed Barbet
50. Blue Throated Toucanet (used to be Emeral Toucanet)
51. Collared Aracari
52. Keel Billed Toucon
53. Chestnut Mandibled Toucon (on the road from San Jose)
54. Acorn Woodpecker
55. Black Cheeked Woodpecker
56. Hoffmann?s Woodpecker
57. Golden Olive Woodpecker
58. Acorn Woodpecker
59. Pale Billed Woodpecker
60. Red Faced Spinetail
61. Plain Xenops
62. Buff Throated Foliage-Gleaner
63. Linneated Foliage Gleaner
64. Sharpbill
65. Plain Brown Woodcreeper
66. Oliveaceous Woodcreeper
67. Wedge Billed Woodcreeper
68. Strong Billed Woodcreeper (this Woodcreeper appears to be the size of a Pileated, and wouldn?t you know it, we watched as it took out a small tree).
69. Cocoa Woodcreeper
70. Spotted Woodcreeper
71. Streak Headed Woodcreeper
72. Brown Billed Scythebill
73. Plain Antvireo
74. Slaty Antwren
75. White Collared Manakin
76. White Ruffed Manakin
77. White Crowned Manakin
78. Yellow Bellied Elaenia
79. Torrent Tyrannulet
80. Ochre Bellied Flycatcher
81. Mistletoe Tyrannulet (technically still the Paltry Tyrannulet, let?s insult these birds)
82. Scale Crested Pygmy-Tyrant (but there?s a great name)
83. Black Headed Tody-Flycatcher
84. Common Tody Flycatcher
85. Yellow Olive Flycatcher
86. Sulphur Rumped Flycatcher
87. Tawny Chested Flycatcher
88. Tufted Flycatcher
89. Olive Sided Flycatcher (staking out the tops of the all the best snags, just like up north)
90. Dark Pewee
91. Eastern Wood Pewee
92. Tropical Pewee
93. Black Phoebee (less white than New Mexico birds)
94. Bright Rumped Attila (we saw one beat a lizard its own length mercilessly on a log; I guess they earn the name)
95. Rufous Mourner
96. Ducky-Capped Flycatcher
97. Great Kiskadee
98. Social Flycatcher
99. Piratic Flycatcher
100. Tropical Kingbird
101. Eastern Kingbird
102. Cinnamon Becard
103. White Winged Becard
104. Masked Tityra
105. Black Crowned Tityra
106. Sharpbill (the best bird on a hike with a guide that was the muddy from step one at 6 am to the last step at 5pm)
107. Blue & White Swallow
108. Northern Rough Winged Swallow
109. Southern Rough Winged Swallow
110. Bank Swallow
111. Barn Swallow
112. American Dipper
113. Band Backed Wren
114. Black Throated Wren
115. Bay Wren (this bird is a knockout; I don?t expect that of wrens, just excellent singing)
116. Stripe Breasted Wren
117. House Wren (one of the most often seen birds here)
118. White Breasted Wood Wren (definitely the most heard bird in the woods)
119. Gray Breasted Wood Wren
120. Slaty Backed Nightingale-Thrush (my eye muscles weren?t quick enough for this one but Delia?s were: that?s the advantage of pairs-listing)
121. Veery (near San Jose)
122. Swainson?s Thrush (one of the few possible Northwest migrants here).
123. Clay Colored Thrush
124. Long Billed Gnatwren (this is actually an old world warbler, it is actually much brighter than shown in the book).
125. Tropical Gnatcatcher
126. Brown Jay
127. Red Eyed Vireo
128. Brown Capped Vireo (song seemed to me to be identical to Warbling Vireo; sometimes they are lumped)
129. Lesser Greenlet
130. Tennessee Warbler
131. Tropical Parula
132. Yellow Warbler (near San Jose)
133. Chestnut Sided Warbler
134. Blackburnian Warbler
135. Olive Crowned Yellowthroat
136. Canada Warbler
137. Slate-Throated Redstart
138. Golden Crowned Warbler
139. Rufous Capped Warbler
140. Bananaquit
141. Common Bush-Tanager
142. Black & Yellow Tanager
143. Olive Tanager
144. White Shouldered Tanager
145. White Lined Tanager
146. Red-Throated Ant Tanager
147. Scarlet Tanager
148. Crimson Collared Tanager
149. Passerini?s Tanager (the last of three bright red & black tanagers)
150. Blue Gray Tanager
151. Palm Tanager
152. Elegant Euphonia
153. Tawny-Capped Euphonia
154. Golden-Browed Chlorophonia
155. Emeral Tanager
156. Silver Throated Tanager
157. Speckled Tanager
158. Bay Headed Tanager
159. Golden Hooded Tanager
160. Spangle-Cheeked Tanager
161. Scarlet-Thighed Dacnis
162. Green Honeycreeper
163. Variable Seedeater
164. Thick-Billed Seed-Finch
165. Yellow-Faced Grassquit
166. White Naped Brush Finch
167. Orange Billed Sparrow
168. Black Striped Sparrow
169. Rufous-Collared Sparrow
170. Grayish Saltator
171. Buff-Throated Saltator
172. Black Headed Saltator
173. Rose Breasted Grosbeak
174. Great Tailed Grackle
175. Bronzed Cowbird
176. Giant Cowbird
177. Baltimore Oriole
178. Scarlet-Rumped Casique
179. Chestnut-Headed Oropendola
180. Montezuma Oropendola
181. House Sparrow

Well it had to end somewhere. Thanks for your patience everyone,
Ed Newbold, normally in residential Beacon Hill (enter the YardBirdRace! leaderboard will be updated soon at www.ednewbold.com) newboldwildlife at netscape.net



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