New habitat, new birds

The dry thorn forest along Guacimo Rd that we birded in the afternoon was remarkably birdy for the heat of the day.  It'd be interesting to see it first thing in the morning.

We started along a shady creek that was surrounded by the much taller trees it supported.  We saw a subadult male Long-tailed Manakin, but it lasted only a few seconds.  A Black-hawk was more patient.

Vernon's pishing (and pygmy-owl tape) attracted a few of the local passerines.  This is a Northern-beardless Tyrannulet (at least that's what we called it.  I'd never seen one before).

This is the last bird where we blew the ID.  It was called a White-lored Gnatcatcher for the very good reason that it has white lores.

The problem is that Tropical Gnatcatcher has even more extensive white in front of the eye (White-lored's is set off by the black eyeline extending to the bill).

This was the first Olive Sparrow I've seen since I birded the Rio Grande Valley in high school

We drove on a ways to the next thicket or flowering bunch of trees (seeing the ground-doves from a few posts ago).  Don Brooks spotted 2 Thick-knees just off the road.

We stopped at a pasture where Vernon was hoping for Magpie Jays, but a new trogon for the trip, Black-headed, appeared first.

One of the White-throated Magpie-jays did come in for a view.

Finally a Banded Wren that appeared for Vernon right on cue.

With that we headed back to San Jose for the flight out the next morning.