At 5:30AM, when we gathered outside our rooms for our morning walk, the moon was still shining, though the clouds were beginning to reflect a little sunlight from below the horizon.

The Costa Rican moon

We went to the OTS biological station canopy tower again and I noticed this sign for the first time.

Early morning light to the north of the tower

The sun was beginning to light up the clouds on the horizon to the east.

Mary, on the viewing deck of the OTS tower

Cecropia tree, with tall palms behind

Cecropia tree and palm trees, NNE of OTS tower in the early morning light

Mary, Jody, Leigh, Derek and Monica, looking for birds from the OTS tower before sun-up

Warming up in the eastern sky

When the sun got above the horizon, it starting breaking through the cloud cover.

Flowering plant below the tower

Close-up of the flowering plant

The Double-toothed Kite was back at its post this morning.

Bay-headed Tanager

Bay-headed Tanager

Several male Scarlet-thighed Dacnises appeared in the trees at a distance from the tower.

Male Scarlet-thighed Dacnises

Overhead more than 40 Crimson-fronted Parakeets flew by.

Crimson-fronted Parakeets, flying past the OTS tower

Nearby, a male Collared Trogon perched in a tree.

Male Collared Trogon

A male Masked Tityra perched in a tree near where the dacnises had been.

One of the Scarlet-thighed Dacnises lit in the tree with the Masked Tityra and the tityra took note.

Male Masked Tityra and male Scarlet-thighed Dacnis

Male Masked Tityra

A female Scarlet-thighed Dacnis landed in a tree near the tower.

A Silver-throated Tanager also landed near the tower.

The Bay-headed Tanager made another appearance.

Male Slate-throated Redstart, on a Cecropia leaf

On our walk back to the dining hall from the tower, we saw a male Slate-throated Redstart.

Nearby, we also saw a Blackburnian Warbler.

Blackburnian Warbler

There was also a Tropical Parula.

Tropical Parula

Tropical Parula

Tropical Parula

When we got back to the dining room patio, we found this female Spot-crowned Euphonia at the feeders.

Female Spot-crowned Euphonia

Immature male Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Spot-crowned Euphonia

Female Spot-crowned Euphonia

Back view of the female Spot-crowned Euphonia

Female Spot-crowned Euphonia

Speckled Tanager

Male Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Green Honeycreeper

Two Gray-headed Chachalacas hopped onto the feeders.

There was a female and a male Variable Seedeater on the patio.

Back view of the Streaked Saltator

Streaked Saltator, at the feeders at OTS Las Cruces Biological Station, Costa Rica

Streaked Saltator

Last bird for the morning at the feeders was a Clay-colored Thrush.

We got on the bus and went to Finca Cántaros where we were greeted by members of the St. Vito Bird Club--and a big orange-flowered Poro tree.

There were Crimson-fronted Parakeets in the Poro tree.

Crimson-fronted Parakeet

We didn't get far down the trail when we saw a Purple-crowned Fairy hummingbird at a flower above us.

There were also a couple of White-crowned Parrots in the trees.

Leigh, Fran and others of our group, visiting with members of the San Vito Bird Club at Finca Cántaros, Provincia de Puntarenas, San Vito, Costa Rica

Walking a trail at Finca Cántaros with members of the San Vito Bird Club

The rainforest in the old, established portion of Finca Cántaros

The finca owner, Lily, a person with a Ph.D. in environmental education who had worked on her degree at Finca Cántaros before buying the property from the original owners) and members of the San Vito Bird Club gave us an orientation to the place: Greg, Lily, Delila (an intern from Guatamaula), three women members of the club, Carlos (an intern from Panama) and our group.

Our group getting an orientation to Finca Cántaros from the San Vito Bird Club: (from the back) Ann, Carolyn, Deb, Monica (behind), Fran, Tom, Leigh

Jody, Derek, Mary, Leigh, Tom, Fran, Monica, Deb (behind), Carolyn, Ann, Chito

Out on the trail to the property lagoon: Leigh, Deb, Monica, Deb, Lily, Carolyn, Derek, bird club members, Ann, Fran

Chito, Delila, bird club president, Jody, Mary

Rainbow Eucalyptus tree

Bird club member, Tom, Fran, bird club president and Jody (in back), Mary (taking her own photo of the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree), finca interns Carlos and Delila, and Chito, on the trail to the lagoon

Mary's photo of the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree

Derek, Lily, San Vito bird club members, Ann, Carolyn and Monica

Lily wanted us all to see the Green-winged X Blue-winged Teal hybrid on the far side of the lagoon.

The sign for the Zoncho (Black Vulture) Lagoon at Finca Cántaros, San Vito, Puntarena province, Costa Rica

From the lagoon they took us to a garden and lawn area with an overlook of the town of San Vito below.

San Vito, Costa Rica

The view from the garden and lawn

More of the view

Ann, Mary, Leigh, Tom, Fran, bird clubber, Derek, Deb, Chito, Carolyn, Jody

We were wondering what the bright white buildings were in San Vito; looking closer, we found they were whitewashed crypts in the cemetery.

Coffee plants in San Vito

Poinsettia

Poinsettia, in the garden at Finca Cántaros

This big black bee hovered among the tropical verbena flowers in the garden.

Bee on verbena

Some of us walked to the finca's new acquisition of land adjacent to the original property; along the way, we saw this Mistletoe (formerly Paltry) Tyrannulet.

Mistletoe Tyrannulet

Mistletoe Tyrannulet

We also got glimpses of a Philadelphia Vireo.

Philadelphia Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo

This big butterfly was sipping on some guava juice on the ground.

Butterfly eating guava

A second, smaller butterfly joined the first.

Butterfly

Chito took a group photo of us in front of the new property: Jody, Derek, Tom, Lily (property owner), Fran, Deb, Leigh, Monica, Mary, Steve

The Forest of the Children of Coto Brus (8th canton in Puntarenas province, Costa Rica; San Vito is its capital city)

The sticks in the field designate where children planted new trees to re-populate the field that had been cleared for farming. A GPS was used to mark each tree's location so children could return in the future to see how their planting was doing. It's a way to gain investment in the environment from the children and their families.

From the new property, we could see this Yellow-headed Caracara on a snag in the distance.
Digiscoped photo taken by Chito Motina, using his Leica spotting scope and my Pixel phone camera

Flowers from another orange-flowered tree like the Poro

Looking back at the road into the Finca Cántaros property

Derek took a photo of Mary and me after we'd returned from the new property acquisition.

Mary and Steve at Finca Cántaros, San Vito, Costa Rico

As we were about to get back onto the bus, this Boat-billed Flycatcher flew into a tree overhead and waited for me to take a few photos.

Boat-billed Flycatcher

Boat-billed Flycatcher

Boat-billed Flycatcher

After leaving the finca, we drove to an area called Tres Rios and walked the road; along one of the three rivers, we saw this kingfisher. The rounded head and spots on the wings are more like the Green Kingfisher, but the bill does not seem to be as large as in the Green. The bill shape and size seems more like the Amazon Kingfisher.

The dots on the wings and rounded head seem to fit with Green Kingfisher.

There was a big kettle of Black Vultures over the Tres Rios area.

Kettle of Black Vultures

There were also many Black Vultures on the hills along the river.

From a distance, the vultures looked like a line of leaf-cutter ants.

The moon was up while we were birding.

Black Vulture

Mistletoe Tyrannulet

A Crested Caracara joined the Black Vultures on the side of the hill at Tres Rios.

There were houses along the road and this one had lots of interesting plants around it.

Back of an interesting house along the road where we were walking at Tres Rios

Delila was trying to communicate to us about this plant, an avocado, I think.

Stream feeding Tres Rios

Several Cattle Egrets flew up from the fields.

There was a wasp or hornet nest in a tree near the road.

Crested Caracara

Crested Caracara

The Crested Caracara eventually flew into the Poro tree with several Crested Oropendola nests.

The Crested Caracara lit on top of the Poro tree where several Crested Oropendolas were nesting.

Crested Caracara, atop a Poro tree in the Tres Rios area

Crested Oropendola

Crested Oropendola in flight

We also saw a Yellow-headed Caracara.

Yellow-headed Caracara

One of several hummingbirds we saw at the flowers of the Poro tree.

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird

Unidentified Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Female Crowned Woodnymph

Female Crowned Woodnymph

Female Crowned Woodnymph

Charming Hummingbird?

Female Long-billed Starthroat

Orange flowers of the Poro tree

Delila found a giant walkingstick and Carlos let it crawl all over him.

Giant walkingstick, on Carlos' head

After lunch, we sat on our balcony for a while and this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (one of two) landed in a nearby tree.

Back out on the patio, this Silver-throated Tanager was looking for a meal.

Male Green Honeycreeper, at the feeder on the patio

Immature male Thick-billed Euphonia

Adult male Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Green Honeycreeper

Immature Thick-billed Euphonia

Adult male Thick-billed Euphonia

Female Thick-billed Euphonia

This painting of the biological station hung on the wall in the dining room.

Some of us took the bus a short way down the highway (Chito wanted us to avoid getting hit by motorists) and walked down an unnamed road on the opposite side of the highway from the biological station: Steve, Derek, Chito, Tom and Fran.

The sky through the canopy above us

This Crested Guan perched briefly on one of the leaning giant bamboo branches.

Mary spotted this blue and black butterfly on a broad leaf.

This Plain Antvireo moved to quickly for me to get a good photo, but I'm including it to document our observation.

Fast-moving Plain Antvireo

We saw two female Rose-throated Becards in the trees.

One of the two Rose-throated Becards we saw

Buff-throated Saltator

Buff-throated Saltator

This Brown-billed Scythebill was in the trees away from the road.
Digiscope photo taken by Chito Motina, using his Leica spotting scope and my Pixel phone camera

This moth was on the wall of the dining hall after we went through our checklist of birds for the day and I saw it on the way back to our room for the night.