Green-crowned Brilliant

This little beauty kept returning to this perch, pausing briefly to give us an opportunity to shoot.

Great Potoo with Chick

This is the first Great Potoo we've seen on any of our trips. And while it isn't very apparent in this photo, there is a Potoo Chick nestled in the feathers in the front of the bird. When watching it, we could see it moving around every once in a while, but it was otherwise perfectly camouflaged. I can see the tips of its beak, and one of its eyes, when viewed at 100% at the original image resolution.

Red-footed Plumeleteer

We visited the Nature Pavilion, a unique private reserve for bird photography, and saw yet another new species there. Our schedule didn't allow much time there, but I hope to return to this wonderful place in the future.

Red-eyed Tree Frog Mating Pair

One member of the group was a professional herpetologist, and he went out one evening, and came across this pair of mating frogs. We all scurried back to our rooms, and grabbed our cameras to get a few shots.

Gray-capped Flycatcher

We went out just after dawn, and walked behind the Lodge to the area on the shore of the Sarapiqui River, and had some incredible light for a while. This Flycatcher perched nearby, basking in this beautiful early morning light.

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan

There was a swimming pool at the Lodge, and this turned out to be a great place to shoot, as several species of birds landed in the trees in this area, including this beautiful Toucan.

Keel-billed Toucan

One of the most colorful birds I've ever seen, we were able to get reasonably close to this beauty!

Snowy Cotinga

We had seen the white male of this species by the river, but it was very far away. But while at the pool area, shooting the Toucans, this female landed quite a bit closer, allowing a few shots.

Great Green Macaw

We saw this species once before in Costa Rica, but they were extremely far away. Marco spotted one when we were shooting, but it was also too far to get decent shots. So we headed out in the bus to try and get closer, and were pleasantly surprised to find the tree right off the side of the main road we were traveling on. We parked nearby, got out, and were able to get reasonably close to it.

Crested Guan and Chick

We were hiking in the La Selva OTS, when we came across this adult with a couple of chicks. We spent about 20 minutes shooting there. This shot is actually a combination of 2 different images: one where the adult was in focus, and another where the chick was in focus. I combined the best of each in Photoshop to get this image.

Violaceous Trogon

Yet another new species we came across at the La Selva OTS.

Rufous Motmot

This was one of the species we were really hoping to see on this trip. We were crossing the bridge, and shooting the Trogon in the previous shot, when Philip Aspinall, who was with us on this trip, spotted this one. It was fairly deep down in the vegetation, and getting an angle to get a clear view was tough, but I was fortunate to get a few decent frames.

Collared Aracari leaving the Nest

Marco spotted this Aracari nest, and we hung out there for a while, waiting for one of them to go in or out of the nest. Initially, it just poked its head out, and I have a shot or two of that, but it finally emerged, and just before taking flight I grabbed this shot.

Long-tailed Tyrant

We spotted this on a nice perch as we were driving down the road. We started shooting from inside the bus, figuring it would probably fly away once we opened the doors. It's a bit of a struggle positioning myself and the big 600mm lens in the bus, and it took off before I could rotate to get a vertical shot. So I was left with only this one, with its tail cut off! I have another, full body, but on a barbed wire perch, which I didn't care for.

Roadside Hawk

We saw a few of these, although not nearly as many as we usually do. He was about to take off when I snapped this shot.

Scarlet Macaw

Seeing these is usually one of the highlights of any trip, because of how incredibly bright and colorful they are. We hadn't expected to see them, because we weren't going to any locations where they are common, but got lucky anyway!

Mangrove Swallow (Juvenile)

I've shot these before on other trips, but not the very beautiful Juveniles, with their soft gray coloration.

Green Kingfisher

We always love seeing and shooting Kingfishers, and we did have a few opportunities on this trip.

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Marco was using his green laser-light to point to where the Woodpecker nest was, and this got the bird's attention, and he came out to check out the odd green light. Interesting behavior!

Great Kiskadee Eating a Cicada

I spotted this guy far up in a tree, and was thrilled to see the bright green Cicada in its beak!

Broad-billed Motmot 1

This was pretty neat, as we came across a pair of birds, and both parents had food in their mouths, waiting to go to the nest to feed their young. This one had a cicada or similar bug.

Broad-billed Motmot 2

This one had a caterpillar of some type. Once we left the vicinity of their nest, they went into feed the babies.

Yellow Eyelash Viper

We visited a local Serpentarium, and the owner took various snakes out of their enclosures, allowing them to be photographed on the natural vegetation on the grounds. I don't normally like to photograph captive animals, but decided to make an exception here.

Crimson-fronted Parakeet

We saw and heard quite a few Parrots and Parakeets, but rarely were they anyplace where they could be photographed. Usually they were very high up in the tallest trees. But once in a while they landed in trees not too far away, and I was able to get a shot or two.

Orange-billed Sparrow

This was taken on the grounds at Rancho Naturalista, where these little sparrows would carefully emerge from the bushes to look for seeds somewhat in the open before hopping back into hiding.

Brown Jay Calling

A large, loud, raucous bird, fairly common at Rancho Naturalista and other locations in Costa Rica.