Backcountry Birding

A year of meeting leaders in bird conservation around the world

Turrialba

Here are some photos from the area around the Turrialba Volcano. Photo-heavy, text-light. More to come about my time on the Nicoya Peninsula in the next post!

Got the privilege of seeing a male Quetzal. 3-foot tail feathers. Pretty stoked.

Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush. Nightingale-Thrushes are the closest relatives of the migratory thrushes in the USA! Incredible birds.

Sooty Thrush. What a freaky eye! A close relative of both the American Robin and the Eurasian Blackbird.

Sunset from ~6000ft, above the clouds.

According to my grandfather this is a Jersey-Guernsey type. Turrialba is famous for its dairy, which is the primary land use around here.

Montezuma Oropendula (Crow-sized). Check out this video (not mine) of their sound. They construct these massive hanging basket nests in colonies.

Purple Gallinule in flight at the Angostura Dam lake

Poró Gigante and Water Hyacinth at the same lake.

Lesson’s Motmot (from the Monteverde Butterfly Garden, sneaking into this post)

It was very used to people, to say the least!

There are some pictures. I’m headed out of Costa Rica now, so I’ll be trying to put together a post about the beach sometime in the next couple of days. Stay tuned for that post and others! Hold on for a second though, I’ve gotta board my flight to Buenos Aires. Thank you for reading!!

Angus Pritchard

February 14, 2023

Costa Rica

2 responses to “Turrialba”

Andrew Moser

February 15, 2023 at 7:18 am

Great photos! And enjoyed listening to the sound of the Montezuma Oropendula. Hope things are going well. Just signed up for the Cornbread here…

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Mike

March 6, 2023 at 8:03 pm

Thank you for bridging cultures and sharing opportunities for each of us to marvel at creation and our part in it!

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Turrialba

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