TicoTyler
Tyler Wenzel
In late February a pair of Scarlet Macaws were preparing a nest in the top of a palm tree that succumbed to a beetle infection this past rainy season here in Costa Rica.
One night as I was outside recording the vocalizations of a nesting Bare-throated Tiger-Heron suddenly a pair of Spectacled Owls swooped in right above my head and started dueting.
A few minutes later they alighted in the tip of the trunk the Macaws had been excavating. One of the individuals quickly flew off, but another spent about half an hour there looking around and briefly going inside. I have a 5-meter-tall observation deck on the back of my house that is right at eye level with the palm tree and about 35 meters away laterally. So I set up my camera and recorded the owl spying out the trunk.
Soon after I was away from home for a few weeks so wasn't able to keep up with developments. When I returned in early May I occasionally was hearing vocalizations at night but never managed to spot one of the owls. In conjunction with the Raptor Foundation of Costa Rica, I was hoping to find the nesting site to document some information about this species that is not well studied. Earlier this week I was able to confirm the location in that same tree that I had spotted it in in late February. The nest cavity was about 6 meters off the ground and 43 cm in diameter based on measurements of the trunk, which is uniform in diameter.
A few days later, I noticed one evening that the juvenile was perching on the edge of the nest cavity, checking out its surroundings. Tonight it decided to come out quite early (around 4 pm, 90 minutes before sunset) and was being mobbed by a Tropical Mockingbird and a Tropical Kingbird. (Video of the first mobbing here.) I was also able to photograph it thanks to it still being light out.
Given that the images I've posted are not of an active, incubating nest but of the preparation phase and now the phase of it leaving the nest I hope this doesn't fall afoul of any forum rules. I saw a passing mention about a rule regarding no nest photos but I couldn't find any actual rules to consult. And all images have been taken from quite some distance so as not to be invasive, especially since it is nesting right on the edge of the road in between several houses.
One night as I was outside recording the vocalizations of a nesting Bare-throated Tiger-Heron suddenly a pair of Spectacled Owls swooped in right above my head and started dueting.
A few minutes later they alighted in the tip of the trunk the Macaws had been excavating. One of the individuals quickly flew off, but another spent about half an hour there looking around and briefly going inside. I have a 5-meter-tall observation deck on the back of my house that is right at eye level with the palm tree and about 35 meters away laterally. So I set up my camera and recorded the owl spying out the trunk.
Soon after I was away from home for a few weeks so wasn't able to keep up with developments. When I returned in early May I occasionally was hearing vocalizations at night but never managed to spot one of the owls. In conjunction with the Raptor Foundation of Costa Rica, I was hoping to find the nesting site to document some information about this species that is not well studied. Earlier this week I was able to confirm the location in that same tree that I had spotted it in in late February. The nest cavity was about 6 meters off the ground and 43 cm in diameter based on measurements of the trunk, which is uniform in diameter.
A few days later, I noticed one evening that the juvenile was perching on the edge of the nest cavity, checking out its surroundings. Tonight it decided to come out quite early (around 4 pm, 90 minutes before sunset) and was being mobbed by a Tropical Mockingbird and a Tropical Kingbird. (Video of the first mobbing here.) I was also able to photograph it thanks to it still being light out.
Given that the images I've posted are not of an active, incubating nest but of the preparation phase and now the phase of it leaving the nest I hope this doesn't fall afoul of any forum rules. I saw a passing mention about a rule regarding no nest photos but I couldn't find any actual rules to consult. And all images have been taken from quite some distance so as not to be invasive, especially since it is nesting right on the edge of the road in between several houses.
