Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Female Golden-browed Chlorophonia

Most restaurants in Costa Rica are open air, like the restaurant that I showed yesterday. In one restaurant that we went to in Monteverde, a small injured bird was found and was being nursed back to health by the workers in the restaurant. Here is the bird, sitting in a milk carton that the restaurant staff used to hold the bird.

This looks like a female golden-browed chlorophonia, which is a member of the tanager family. A male golden-browed chlorophonia differs from because it has a yellow streak on his forehead and over his eye, and his coloration is a little brighter.

Tanagers are native to the Western Hemisphere. There are 230 different species of tanagers. They will flock with other birds and will inhabit areas close to man. They particularly like fruit trees.

Costa Rica is home to more species of birds than the USA and Canada combined, so I feel fortunate when I can find a bird with which I was not familiar in a guidebook in order to share the information for this website. I confess that I was not familiar with the name of golden-browed chlorophonias until I looked up this bird photo.

This week we are showing nighttime photos of Budapest on Viva la Voyage.
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6 comments:

  1. SharonNovember 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM

    What a beautiful little bird! I'm not sure how the male species could be any brighter. This one practically glows.

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  2. brattcatNovember 24, 2009 at 5:10 AM

    I agree with Sharon. We had a scarlet tanager visit us in Vermont for many years. The male was an unbelievable red but the female was a dull version of her partner.

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  3. FrankNovember 24, 2009 at 5:53 AM

    That bird certainly is getting a lot of deserved attention. He's beautiful and after spoiling may never want to leave.

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  4. JudyNovember 24, 2009 at 8:22 AM

    That is just adorable. I hope the pretty little bird got well and flew off.
    Might not be a milk carton though. I could just make out the words "Acetaminofen 500mg" just above the hand holding it.

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  5. Rob SiemannNovember 24, 2009 at 10:49 AM

    Beautiful little bird! Do they get any bigger?

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  6. Dave-CostaRicaDailyPhoto.comNovember 24, 2009 at 6:12 PM

    Rob and Mandy,

    This type of bird grows to a size of 13 cm (5 in.), so this was just a baby.

    Jarart,

    You are indeed correct. It is not a milk carton. You were more observant than I.

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