Up and over the hill via the dirt road from Las Catalinas (4 wheel or all wheel drive required) there is the one and only one stream for miles and miles that still has water near the end of this Dry Season (April 2023). As in any extremely dry environments, water is a magnet. This morning I drove over and walked the road next to the stream. My car gave me the opportunity to retreat to an air conditioned environment with the 90+ degree heat (and super high humidity) overwhelmed me.  After a few minutes of sitting with the AC blasting, birding would be restarted.

My excitement of the morning was when I saw a quick flash of scarlet. I knew Pileated Woodpeckers did not range anywhere this far south … never being seen south of the United States. Some research on my Merlin app from Cornel revealed I was watching a pair of Pale-Billed Woodpeckers. The woodpecker were obviously living in a “savannah like” area across a dirt road from the stream (dry forest of the other side of the stream). Until I saw these gorgeous birds, I had no idea they even existed … obviously a lifer.

• One of my very enjoyable tasks while down here in Costa Rica is updating my Costa Rican Birding Book … The Birds of Las Catalinas (Free full copy PDF’s of Version 1 are available). While the major focus of the book is the birds of this region, Version 2 will also cover El Viejo Wetlands and the Rainforest Highlands. Full copies of Release #2 will also be freely available as a PDF Download.

Pale-Billed Woodpecker

Normally the lifer woodpecker would make for a fantastic day of birding, but as the late night TV commercials would always state … Wait, there’s more!

I had no idea that Black-Headed Trogons sometimes flock together, even during breeding season. While birding the stream near a ford that I was not willing to drive across on a very small dirt road I saw / heard five trogons. There may have been more, but this was the number of trogons I could confirm.

Singing Black-Headed Trogons (video link for email subscribers)