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Hummingbirds in Costa Rica |
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Photography by Javier Martin |
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There are 57 species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica, this is a big number considering there are like two or three found in all North America.
The sunlight reflecting in their wings produce fantastic beautiful colors that change tones as they move and the reflection angle changes as well.
The rufous color hummingbird (Amazonia zacatl) is so common; I have spotted it in Central Avenue in downtown San José. |
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These birds live in a sort of energy tramp; they need a huge amount of energy to be able to fly the way they do it, and this way of flaying is the only way they have to feed the way they do it, as a result, if they don´t feed in a few hours they will die.
So the typical question is; how they sleep? To do it, they have to descend their metabolism to be able to survive a bunch of hours sleeping.
The hummingbirds in these pictures are the Green Violet-ear (Colibri thalassinus) and Brown Violet-ear (Colibri delphinae) The first one is from the high lands of Costa Rica, the other is found on mid and low elevations in both Caribbean and Pacific slopes of Costa Rica. I was unable to identify the chicks. |
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Observing hummingbirds in Costa Rica is a great experience both for avid bird watcher and for neophytes as well.
A piece of advice: Recent studies demonstrate that hummingbird feeders are bad for these birds, they produce several negative side effects to local hummingbirds populations, so try to avoid those places where they are still in use.
Instead of observing these birds feeding artificially, is lot more fun to see them feeding from real flowers, it may take longer to spot them, but during vacations; is there such thing as running for bird watching or other many activities? A very important part of any pleasure trip is the relaxation you get out of it. |
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