ID this Bird - Costa Rica - La Fortuna / Arenal Hike (1 Viewer)

[mamin888]

My wife and I went on a hike on the outskirts of Arenal / La Fortuna with hopes of finding Toucans and Howler Monkeys. We found plenty of Toucans, but no Monkeys unfortunately. I also came across two raptor-looking birds who were difficult for me to identify. Please see the pictures. My apologies for the poor quality but the overcast and distance made it very difficult to get a good shot. Any idea what these could be? When I looked up Merlin Falcons I believe their call was identical. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the call on video. What do you guys think?

 

[Butty]

BIg parrots. Thus maybe mealy parrot.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Don't think this is do'able on these images, there are a few large options including two Amazona sp at Arenal plus White-crowned and Red-lored although, the still image seems to show a dark throat unless it's artefact so maybe Brown-hooded?

 

[mamin888]

Thank you both for your replies. I really do not think they were parrots. The more I search, the more I’m convinced that these were Merlin Falcons

 

[Butty]

I'm afraid not. If you could say what features lead you to think they are merlins, we may be able to point you in the right direction. The major things you should be looking at are head-shape, bulk of body, and tail-shape.

 

[nartreb]

This is your image, I changed nothing except increased the saturation of the colors until the sky turned blue and the leaves turned green. As you can see, you have photographed a couple of green birds, i.e., parrots.

(The apparent purpleness at the edges of the branches is not surprising, that's chromatic aberration from the camera lens.)

 

[mamin888]

Very cool! Thank you!! I tried adjusting the saturation on my phone but couldn’t get any color to show, not sure how you were able to do it, but very cool. Thanks again everyone!