I have been birding a little while visiting my son and daughter in Costa Rica for the last week or so. I never cease to be amazed at how difficult it is for me to see and identify birds in the tropics of middle America. The jungle is dense, there is an amazing diversity of birds and I simply have not learned the calls and songs of most of the birds here to help.
Here is an example of a bird I got good looks at and still cannot ID.
This small, maybe 5" long passerine has a high scratchy hissing call. I think it is a flycatcher of some sort.
Soaring raptors are another tough ID here for me.
I think this may be a Zone-tailed Hawk Buteo albonotatus, but am uncertain.
Still, it is always fun to look, watch and study birds everywhere I go.
Thankfully some birds are easy, like this Swallow-tailed Kite Elanoides forficatus
Good birding!
