Bird life in the jungles of Costa Rica is amazing. I am a photographer not a twitcher but I was still in thrall of the huge number of species I managed to see.
Costa Rica is a bird watcher's paradise. There are so many species and many of them are endemic. I just like to photograph the pretty ones.
The forests of Costa Rica are full of hummingbirds. These beautiful feathered creatures are somewhat treasured by the local population and often have sugar water feeders put out for them the way we put out seeds and nuts in Europe.
I was hoping for a photo or two of a hummingbird before going to Costa Rica. Just because the photos look effortlessly good. However I got so many that I now know they take no effort at all.
The cloud forest of San Gerardo de Dota just South of San Jose is better known for the symbol of Central American birds, the Quetzal. However these are less easy to photograph and I didn't manage print worth images. However there were many hummingbirds to make up for it.
Hummingbirds are every photographers dream bird to photograph. The scaly feathers stand out so well in a photo and getting one in flight is actually easier than you might imagine as they hover quite a lot instead of flying.
There are so many birds in Costa Rica that photographing them is just a joy. Find a perch and focus on it, a bird will land in no time. In this case it was a flame coloured tanager.
Getting hummingbirds feeding is relatively easy as they hover nicely. There speed is phenomenal as they intake a lot of sugar but while feeding they do slow down long enough to grab a shot, though not often in places it is easy to focus on them.
What better reason to go to a cloud forest than to try and get a photo of a hummingbird. This guy was more tricky than most as he didn't hover very long.
What better reason to go to a cloud forest than to try and get a photo of a hummingbird. This guy was more tricky than most as he didn't hover very long.
