An afternoon in the bus allowed a few birding stops. Reprising the theme of Costa Rica's ugly birds, here's a Groove-billed Ani.
We stopped and birded some pastures around the Casa Turire Hotel. We saw Southern Lapwings last year on the morning of Tarcoles river birding, but they weren't as close as the birds we had here.
Some of the pastures were more overgrown than others. Some of the lusher ones held Gray-crowned Yellowthroats. The ones in CR seemed to have much better defined masks than the bird I remember from South Texas many years ago.
Red-breasted Blackbirds teed up distantly. It's a bird I'd definitely like a closer look at.
The long legs and red eyes of Giant Cowbirds (an Oropendolo parasite) created a fairly bizarre looking bird.
Otherwise there were scatterings of common edge birds, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Tropical Gnatcatcher, and this Tropical Pewee.
Summer Tanager is another very common bird in CR in the winter.
After we left the hotel Vernon's sharp eyes picked up a Fasciated Tiger-heron in its preferred fast-moving river habitat, definitely my best look at this night-heron sized bird.
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