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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Oilbirds in Monteverde! (1 Viewer)

Motmot

Eduardo Amengual
I've just received the information that a small group of oilbirds have been regularly found feeding at night near the friends school for more than a week now!! They come to the 'aguacatillo' trees (same trees quetzals love) to get the fruit. What a shocker!
 
I've just received the information that a small group of oilbirds have been regularly found feeding at night near the friends school for more than a week now!! They come to the 'aguacatillo' trees (same trees quetzals love) to get the fruit. What a shocker!

I wonder where they setting up their roost.
 
It sounds like they may be roosting in nearby vegetation. Richard Garigues got some amazing photos of them in low vegetation although Im not sure if he took them during the day or at night.

After breeding, Oilbirds wander and are sometimes found roosting in vegetation. Who knows where these birds came from. There could be from a small colony somewhere in Costa Rica or Panama. Might even be from Colombia although that seems kind of far to go. I hope the birds stick around Monteverde for a while- that would be a great addition to my CR list and lifer! An Oilbird was also seen in the Osa this year and there have been report from Ensenada and Cerro de la Muerte in the past.

I wouldnt be surprised if a small number of birds made it to Costa Rica on an annual basis and just get missed. Maybe they were found in the Monteverde area simply because there are more night walks done there than anywhere else in the country.

They could also show up in a number of other places and no one would ever know- forests in the Talamancas and Braulio Carrillo are two such places that come to mind.

On a side note, another good bird sighting is that Harpy Eagle has been recently seen again in Tortuguero. Sounds like a pair probably lives in the park and ealier in the year they were seen carying nesting material but the nest was never found.

With such exciting sightings being reported, I am dying to get out birding!
 
Great news for Monteverde. Robert also told me yesterday he has a roosting Northern Potoo near his house. All sorts of big eyed overgrown-nightjar-like birds haunt the Tilarán forests these days.
 
Is it known if the Oilbird's range is expanding, or is it possible that they were there all along and have just been missed?

Tom
 
Great news for Monteverde. Robert also told me yesterday he has a roosting Northern Potoo near his house. All sorts of big eyed overgrown-nightjar-like birds haunt the Tilarán forests these days.

Ha ha! Yes, it's turning into the strange-looking night bird capital of Costa Rica.
 
Is it known if the Oilbird's range is expanding, or is it possible that they were there all along and have just been missed?

Tom

I haven't heard anything about Oilbirds expanding their range but because they are so difficult to monitor, who knows?

With the high number of night walks and field observation that goes on at Monteverde, I think there would be more sightings if there was a colony nearby.

There are at least ten records for Costa Rica though, so I suspect that they have always been (at the least), rare, post-breeding visitors from somewhere in Panama or maybe even a remote spot in the Talamancan mountains of Costa Rica.
 
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