Geri Birding At It's Best: More From La Cinchona

This Emerald Toucanet gave point-blank, facemelting views at La Cinchona...after this day, things have never been the same.

Geriatric birding first really came to light some years ago in Southeast Arizona. As birders who have visited may know, the area is ridden with people who willingly invite birders into their yards and property to watch the birds attracted to their feeders. In fact, these generous folks often provide the best places to see certain species in the entire country, i.e. White-eared Hummingbird and Berylline Hummingbird in Miller Canyon, Lucifer Hummingbird in Ash Canyon, etc. The birding at these sites is practically effortless; you just plop down in a chair and watch the bird show unfold at the feeders in front of you.

For reasons that I probably do not need to explain to you, many denizens of these publicly-accessible feeding stations are quite elderly, and thus the phrase "gereatric birding" was born. It was immediately abbreviated to "geri birding"...I'm not sure who coined the term originally, probably the one they call "Stilt". Or maybe it was the "Cassowary"?

I have strong feelings for this bird. What an amazing bill/face pattern.

As Red Phalarope Man has mentioned in the past, a study has already demonstrated Emerald Toucanet to actually consist of multiple species. One day, the AOU will likely accept the splits, and this Costa Rica bird will be (universally) known as Blue-throated Toucanet.

Geri birding is, of course, awesome. You just sit there and wrack up the birds, and are often provided with fantastic opportunities to crush them. While the geri birding scene in southeast AZ may be very good, Costa Rican geri birding is downright insane. Costa Rican geri birding spots are often just places with simple fruit feeders or a set of hummingbird feeders, but the La Cinchona Mirador (northeast of Volcan Poas) provides both. The original La Cinchona was destroyed by an earthquake several years ago, but this smaller-scale, newer version did not fail to completely melt my face off. The birding was incredible...our group of nerds all wracked up multiple lifer hummingbirds, including the mesmerizing Green Thorntail, which I failed to get a picture of. I highly recommend stopping by if you are in the area, the food is good too!

In case you missed it, here is the first post from La Cinchona.

Next up from Costa Rica...Volcan Poas!

Prong-billed Barbet was another great bird that came in to the fruit feeders. They seemed to move around rather slowly, and with great deliberation, unlike the one Red-headed Barbet I saw on the trip that was ravaging primary rainforest as part of a massive mixed flock.

As you can see, Prong-billed Barbets (and, allegedly, Red-headed) are partial to fruit feeders. What I won't tell you is how long I was watching this bird for, thinking it was an entirely different (and unrelated) species.

Green-crowned Brilliant really left its mark on me. Not only a large hummingbird, but one that looks stretched out as well...look how long its neck is!

This species lives up to its name. The iridescence the male can put off was previously unfathomable to me...if I found out the bird was radioactive, I would not be surprised. That's a female on the right side of the feeder.

Check out this male Coppery-headed Emerald...what a bird. I dig the dark teardrop around its eye.

This is one of those birds that, when seen at close range and in the right light, just completely resets your brain. For just a moment, the rest of the world does not exist. All of reality is comprised of a hummingbird.

White-bellied Mountain-Gem. Not the most glamorous species, but I like how this image came out. If you ever want to test your patience, try photographing hummingbirds mid-flight without a feeder anywhere in the frame. Not easy!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is familiar to anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes birding in most of Costa Rica. With the exception of high elevation sites, they are the commonest hummingbird almost everywhere you go.

Violet Sabrewing. A hulking beast of a hummingbird, a monument to facemelt. The awesome mass this bird possesses makes me wonder how the laws of physics allow this bird to still function in the form of a hummingbird...no doubt, it was a gruesome and bloody accident that led to this bird being dubbed "sabrewing".

Colibris and More Crushed at La Cinchona

Hello Ms. Coppery-headed Emerald, how does it feel to be COMPLETELY CRUSHED? Did I even know what you were before you were flying around mere feet in front of my face? No. Complete and utter brainbird. This was one of the signature species at La Cinchona, where some of the finest geriatric birding of the trip went down. And believe me, we did a lot of geri birding.

You have not experienced life until you feel the mighty wind of a VIOLENT SABREWING thrusted into your ear. I may have had an ear drum blown out by this oversized and highly dominant hummingbird, but my life has gotten a lot better.

Of course, they are actually called Violet Sabrewings, but my camera's flash rendered them a sort of intense blue in every photo...in good sun, they are a completely different color altogether. We had these birds at a number of sites (including away from feeders, believe it or not) and we grew to love them not only for their impossible size and color, but because they were the only hummingbird who had the balls to chase off Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, widely regarded as the most annoying hummingbirds in Costa Rica.

Here it is...the Fifth Zonotrichia. This sparrow, who has broken the shackles of The Economy of Style, is incredibly common in Costa Rica. We were thankful, but wished there was more than one sparrow species around most of the time.

White-bellied Mountain-Gem.Green head, blue throat, white belly, mind = blown. I don't know much more about them other than that. La Cinchona was the only place we had this tricolored goodness.

Ghost Hermit....er, Green Hermit was another whopping hummingbird that blew everyone away. Before visiting La Cinchona I had seen all of one. This is a monstrous bird for a hermit, the curlewesque bill and fancy tail plumes have implications that we may all be better off ignoring. And yes, this is a lekking species, so watch out.

This bird wasn't getting the oohs and ahhs from people that some of the other birds were, but I was more than happy to stare at all the Green-crowned Brilliants coming to the feeders. The fact that they were one of the less camera-shy birds definitely helped.

This is a humbly-feathered hembra, I'll put some photos of el macho up in the next La Cinchona post. Still, I think she's a lot better looking than most other hummingbirds out there, don't you think? The bill length and thickness seems pretty unique.

"GODDAMMIT COMMON BUSH-TANAGER! This is my banana! That's your banana! Don't even look over here with that bizarre half eye-ring!" - Silver-throated Tanager.

I'm not sure how I went for the whole blog without saying it, but isn't this thing facemelting? Christ, that is a well put-together bird. Addicted to bananas yes, but completely stunning.

Well, I'm out here on Santa Cruz Island without my computer (the battery completely gave up, so its in a coma), without my birdcrusher (Nikon is fixing it) and without time to bird, blog or take photos...but I'm getting paid to watch birds, so its practically pura vida out here!