How many of us growing up thought the Toucan was a Kellogg’s bird? Froot Loops anyway?? Costa Rica has six different types of Toucans, this one being the Chestnut-Mandibled version. In real life they are highly energetic and dramatic in appearance, however much less over-the-top than Toucan Sam. The picture above is taken not long before sunset. My own observation being loud squawkers, rarely sitting still, and some not too bright.
The Toucan pictured below is standing on the hotel room balcony. He/she is repeatedly flying into the sliding glass door of the hotel guest’s room where food was left on the table. Can’t blame for wanting free food, but ouch! How many times does it take bumping your beak before stopping?
Bucket list bird! Getting a good image of a bird in flight is arguably the hardest form of taking pictures… their moving fast!!! Off to Costa Rica we went recently for vacation and I had two types of birds to find (also was looking for monkeys in the wild and here too we did not disappoint): the Scarlet Macaw shown here and a Toucan which will be in the next post.
Macaws – also known as Scarlet Macaws and Lapas locally – are native to Costa Rica living in the tropical low land forests along the Pacific Coast. Its estimated 1,500 of the birds call this country home.
The one here has a mate (they mate for life which is roughly 60 years). I heard the pair flying into the area from their noisy unique call, and was able to walk the half kilometer to the tree they landed in. Very lucky to be shooting rapid sequences when this Scarlet Macaw took off towards me.
The second photo below is the pair leaving the area.
Can you taste the ice cold Coke just by looking at this bottle? Can you feel the heat of the day, so hot that the bottle immediately started dripping when it came out of the bar fridge? How about rolling it on the back of your neck to cool off?
Pssst goes the old fashioned bottle cap. A little bit of cool vapor rises from within. The bottle is raised to your mouth for the first loooooong gulp. The bubbles refresh as the dark liquid goes down. Its placed back in front of you, sun reflecting off the label. Always Coca-Cola!
Tamarindo Beach, Costa Rica, is so far my favorite place to watch a sunset (Even better than world famous Oia, Santorini). After a day of learning to surf, we hung out watching the sun set and this guy use his boogie board. Took this picture with a little Nikon handheld with 5 megapixels… goes to show being in the right place at right time is sometimes more important than the best gear 😉
life art images 