Costa Rica Day 8 - Monteverde

We had a bit of a lazy morning, woke up without an alarm, ate breakfast then drove up to the gate of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.  We didn't go in because it is really busy, even at 7:30am.  We did stop by the hummingbird feeders by the gate where I found 2 new hummers for my life list.  I also went birding for three hours at Curi-Chaga Preserve which was beautiful mix between dense cloud forest and landscaped areas and there were just the right number of people that I didn't feel alone but I was undisturbed.

We are up to 160 species for the trip, 6 of which were added today, and 3 of those are new to my life list.  The overnight low was 68° which was perfect for sleeping in an unheated / unair-conditioned room.  The high was 81° with 69% humidity (84° Real Feel which is acceptable)

Green-crowned Brilliant

Violet Sabrewing

Yellow-faced Grassquit

Masked Tityra

Chestnut-capped Warbler - this is a species that
does not migrate to the North America

Mistletoe Tyrrant

These next three pictures are all of the same species - so frustrating when you’re birding and you think you saw three different species, then you come home and review the photos :/

Scarlet-thighed Dacnis - probably juvenile 
male molting into his adult plumage

male on the left and female on the right (without
any bright colors on her head)

adult male Scarlet-thighed Dacnis

unidentified butterfly

 

WILD Blue Morpho - one of the benefits to birding
solo is that you can hang out with the Blue Morpho 
butterflies until you get the perfect shot 🦋