Please join us on Sunday, February 18 at the OTS Las Cruces reception building at 7 am for a Bird Walk lasting about an hour. We will have binoculars to share and guides to help with bird IDs. After the walk, we’ll have a social coffee in the Las Cruces dining room.
Reminder: to qualify for the Bird List Competition at our forthcoming Annual Meeting (on Sunday, February 25 at Cascatas del Bosco, starting at 8:00 am), you must send your list of all birds seen or heard from Feb. 14-16 to Julie Girard Woolley @ julgirar@gmail.com. Hopefully tonight, you will hear an owl or a potoo!
See you Sunday! Please bring friends and family; the Walk is free and open to the public.
Fiery-billed Aracari: we will see one or hear one (with any luck at all).
As promised, we have further information about the upcoming Celebratory Annual Meeting 2024!
Traditionally, we’ve had a lively contest among members as to whose bird feeder hosted the most species. Now that feeding wildlife is prohibited by law in Costa Rica (hip hip hooray!), we have a new race to the top for you.
Following in the footsteps of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Big Backyard Count, please add up all the bird species you see or hear from Feb. 14-16 in your home territory. International Members* are invited to participate but no going far afield! Stay home! Count your birds! (We will know if you locals rush off to Guanacaste.)
Please email your list to Julie Girard: julgirar@gmail.com by Feb. 24. That is plenty of time as the cut-off date is Feb. 16. This contest starts tomorrow — Valentine’s Day — so get cracking. Our Secretary-Treasurer Lydia Vogt has a nice prize in mind for you with the longest list!
PS Gray-headed Chachalacas count…….
We also know where this one lives…………..
*If you are competing from afar, please tell Julie where you live when you submit your list. If you win, we’ll need your address to mail the prize.
Please join us for a Bird Walk at the beautiful Wilson Botanical Garden this Sunday! We will meet at the Reception Building at 7:00 am and have binoculars to share and guides to lead us.
Why come? To spend a tranquil free hour, walking leisurely through the plant collections, all the while looking for colorful and fascinating local birds. If you are a Spanish speaker, you can practise your English at the coffee hour that follows the Walk. If you are an English speaker, you can learn some new words in Spanish!
Please bring a small donation for the ladies who make the coffe and wash the cups.
All our Bird Walks are free and open to the public; hope to see you there!
This is a Yellow-throated Toucan, the largest species of the Costa Rican toucan group. They are often seen on our walks and can be heard calling for a very long distance.
Please join us for the first walk of 2022 at Hacienda Pino Colina, next door to the Wilson Botanical Garden/Las Cruces.
Judy Richardson has kindly invited us to visit her beautiful homestead where we have seen nesting Rufous Jacamars, White- crested Coquettes, White-winged Tanagers and more, so much more!
Rufous-tailed Jacamar, photo by Yeimiri Badilla
Drive through the open gate to the right (just north) of the main Pino Colina gate at 7 am. Follow the road down the hill and park near the bodega. Judy will meet us there; as always, we will have binoculars and guides to share.
Here is a photo of our last walk of 2021 at Las Cruces/Wilson Botanical Garden.
From left to right: Petra Heck, Judy Richardson, Peter Hulsinck, Tomas Wilkinson, Steffano from New Zealand, Tom and Portia’s granddaughter Ada, Portia Wilkinson and Julie Girard Woolley — photo by Alison Olivieri
Hope to see you there for fabulous birds and gorgeous gardens — it will be a real treat!
Please join us for a November bird walk at the Wilson Botanical Gardens this Sunday November 14 at 7 AM. There will be tons of migrants to see! There will be coffee and breakfast available after the walk. Admission, coffee and tea are free. Like last time, there will be two breakfast options as follows:
Option #1. Complete tico Breakfast: Gallo pinto, egg (scrambled or omelet), fried plantain and local fresh cheese with hot drink (Coffee, tea or aguadulce) and season fruit for USD $8.00/C5,000.
Option #2. Small breakfast: Egg sandwich (local cheese, bacon or ham, and egg) on whole wheat bread with hot drink (Coffee, tea or aguadulce) and season fruit for USD $5.00/C3,000.
Please fill out this form to let us know if your are planning to attend and if you want breakfast. This is just to let the Garden know how much food to prepare. Or you can contact Alison or me directly.
Por favor venga y llevar a la familia también al jardín botánico Wilson este domingo 14 de noviembre a las 7 AM para una caminata para ver aves. Estarán muchas aves migratorias para disfrutar. Habrá café y desayuno disponibles después de la caminata. Las entradas, café y té son gratis. Como la última vez habrá dos tipos de desayuno:
Opción 1: Desayuno grande y completo con pinto, huevos, queso, etcétera par $8 o C5.000.
Opción 2 Desayuno pequeño con un sandwich de huevos, jamón y queso y fruta aparte para $5 o C3.000
Las dos opciones incluyen café, té o aguadulce.
Por favor llene este formulario para indicar su intención de asistir y desayunar. O puede contactar a Alison o a mí.
Please join us for a bird walk at the Wilson Botanical Gardens this Sunday at 7 AM. The entrance will be free thanks to the generous donation of a Club member. The female White-crested Coquette has been seen hanging around the pollinator garden, and maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see her. The comedor will be open for those who would like coffee and conversation afterwards. Binoculares and guides will be available as always.
Por favor venga al jardín botánico Wilson este domingo al las 7 AM para una caminata para ver aves. Las entradas serán gratis por una donación muy amable de un miembro del Club. La hembra Coqueta crestiblanca se vea actualmente en el jardín de los polinizadores. ¡Tal vez tendríamos la suerte de verla! El comedor estará abierto para los que ocuparán un cafecito y conversación después de la caminata. Habrá binoculares y guías disponibles como siempre.
(From San Vito Bird Club Taxonomy Tsar, Jo Davidson)
Not even a global pandemic can keep the Taxonomists of the American Ornithology Society from their appointed duties. Right on schedule, as always, they have announced the classification changes for this year. I’ll start with the three birds that have changes to both their English and scientific names. Let’s begin with one of my local favorites. The Rufous-capped Warbler has been split into two separate species:
The easiest way to differentiate the two is that the Chestnut-capped Warbler has an entirely yellow belly, and in the Rufous-capped, the lower portion of the belly is grey. There are other small differences, but they are very difficult to distinguish in the field. All the pictures I have taken in Coto Brus are of what is now called the Chestnut-capped, so I am guessing that one is more abundant in our usual birding spots.
Next on the list is the Tropical Gnatcatcher, which has also been split: White-browed Gnatcatcher (Polioptila bilineata) Tropical Gnatcatcher (Polioptila plumbea)
The Costa Rican species is now called White-browed Gnatcatcher. The species retaining the Tropical Gnatcatcher name resides in South America.
The Costa Rica resident species, which has an astonishingly small range in the Cartago area, is now called the Grass Wren. Note that the scientific name has not changed. The other species, which kept the English name but was assigned a new scientific name, is found in the U.S. and Canada.
Finally, here are the birds which have had changes to their scientific names only: Neotropic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax brasilianum) is now Nannopterum brasilianum Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway) is now Caracara plancus Striped Owl (Pseudoscops clamator) is now Asio clamator Elegant Euphonia (Euphonia elegantissima) is now Chlorophonia elegantissima Magenta-throated Woodstar (Calliphlox bryantae) is now Philodice bryantae
Please join us for a Bird Walk this Sunday, June 20, at the OTS/Las Cruces Research Station aka Wilson Botanical Garden. We will meet at the Reception Building at 7:30 am and have binoculars to share.
As guests of the SVBC, you will enter for free; however, if you want to make a voluntary donation, that would be most welcome. (The Entrance Fee is $10 for tourists and $3 for residents.)
Please join us for a Bird Walk at the incomparable Finca Cántaros on Sunday, June 6 (tomorrow!). We will meet at the entrance gate at 7:30 am and have binoculars to share.
The walk will last for about an hour.
If we have more than 6 walkers, we will go in two groups and run a little competition to see which group sees the most species.
A Voluntary Donation to the new Finca Cántaros Environmental Association would be most welcome. Hope to see you there!
It is still standing and an attraction for visitors to the OTS/Las Cruces Research Station and Wilson Botanical Garden.
This photo, from 10 years ago, will remind you of pre-pandemic SVBC events! The Tower requires a climb of 75 steps to reach the top. All of the folks you see in the photo above have done it; many times. Photo by Harry Hull III.
The slender and powerful young man in this photo, however, is the only person to have made the climb in less than one minute while toting 36 pairs of binoculars, 20 birding books and 120 juice boxes … Peter Wendell, head of the SVBC, standing alone. That’s what a pandemic will do for you. Photo by Alison Olivieri.
Thank You Again!
Speaking of which, we would like take some space here to honor the major donors to the construction of this amazing gateway to another world: Wildwood Foundation, Judy Richardson, Peggy and Fred Sibley, Jean and Fred Schroeder, Patricia J. Scott, Lauren and John Royer, Theodore Wickwire Royer and Zak Zahawi.
Finally, this is how small you look from the top; photo by Peter Wendell.
San Vito Bird Club 
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