Picumnus olivaceus

Today we had another travel day, or at least spent most of the morning travelling. We are working our way north from the San Jose area and eventually will be right next to the border with Nicaragua. This afternoon turned out to be very productive. Some of the birds seen include Bay Wren, White-throated Magpie-Jay, Black-crested Coquette, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Montezuma Oropendola, Barred Antshrike, Passerini’s Tanager, White-necked Jacobin, Grayish Saltator, Buff-throated Saltator, Banded Wren, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Thick-billed Seed-Finch, Piratic Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Elaenia and Olivaceous Piculet among others.

Chosing which photo to post today was difficult but I decided to go with one of my favorite Costa Rica birds, the Olivaceous Piculet. This is basically a tiny woodpecker and today we had a very exciting encounter with them. While birding along a road we found five (two adults and three young) foraging in some trees. The adult birds were pecking little holes into dead twigs and pulling out what appeared to be insect larve and feeding them to the young birds. This went on for several minutes and we all took tons of photos. Definitely an exciting experience.

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