First Lifer of the trip

I worked a lot harder this year trying to learn some of the songs for this trip, concentrating on the wrens and some of the highland birds that I was more familiar with (there's also fewer birds in the highlands making it considerably less daunting).

On the first afternoon some snippets of wren song caught our ears, sure enough, a pair of Rufous-naped wrens were working a viny wall (wrens in CR seem to love to hang out in dense vine tangles).  They popped up after a bit.

This species turned out to be quite common in the Pacific lowlands as well, being conspicuous and social at first light.

Here's a view of the rufous nape...

There were a lot of birds in the gardens; Squirrel Cuckoo is always a fun bird given their enormous size, about 50% longer than ours.

Speaking of enormous size, here's a Variegated Squirrel; I think our local tree rats might be jealous.

It wasn't until dusk that we happened upon a little blind end in the labyrinthine gardens that had some seed spread on some raised concrete.  There was a White-eared Ground-sparrow, the 2nd I've ever seen.

I tried to find the seed again the next morning at the end of breakfast to watch for Prevost's but couldn't find my way back.  Apparently the Prevost's have been much less regular since a change in planting practices at an adjacent coffee plantation.