Zoochat Big Year 2023

In January, I had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica with a class. This list is incomplete (my notes were worse than I thought), and I only counted repeats on the first day I saw them. Highlights for me are the tapir, quetzal, shark, olingo, and being within touching distance of a coati. I would have posted in this thread as it happened, had I been using ZooChat then and been aware of this thread. Many amphibians, reptiles, and inverts I saw are also missing because I either lost the list or the notes were incredibly vague ("cricket", "stinkbug", "freshwater crab", "stick bug", "weevil", "tiger beetle", "anole", etc).

January 4th, 2023

Sierpe -> just outside of Corcovado National Park

Birds:

1. Bare-throated tiger heron

2. Southern lapwing

3. Common potoo

4. Great-tailed grackle

5. Blue heron

6. Snowy egret

7. Yellow-crowned night heron

8. Scarlet macaw

9. Yellow-throated toucan

10. Common Blackhawk

11. Red-capped manakin

12. Brown pelican

Mammals:

1. White-faced capuchin

2. Greater sac-winged bat

Reptiles:

1. American crocodile

Amphibians:

1. Cane toad

Invertebrates:

1. Leaf-cutter ants

2. Hermit crab

January 5th, 2023

Just outside of and inside Corcovado National Park + snorkeling around Isla del Caño

Birds:

Birds were seen but either they were repeats or my record didn’t go into satisfactory detail

Mammals:

3. White-nosed coati, Nasua narica

4. Geoffroy's spider monkey, Ateles geoffroy

5. Humpback whale

6. Bottlenose dolphin

7. Baird’s tapir

Reptiles:

2. Green sea turtle

Fish:

1. Blacktip reef shark

January 6th, 2023

Birds:

13. Red-lored parrot

14. House wren

15. Crested guan

16. Bright rumpled Attila

17. Black-footed ant shrike

18. Lesson's motmot

19. Crested caracara

Invertebrates:

3. Blue Morpho butterfly

January 7th, 2023

Outside Corcovado > Sierpe > Monteverde

Mammals:

8. Central American agouti, Dasyprocta punctata

January 8th, 2023

San Gerardo Biology Station

Birds:

20. Squirrel cuckoo

21. Coppery-headed emerald

22. Tufted fly catcher

23. Blackburnian warbler

Mammals:

9. Northern olingo, Bassaricyon gabbii

Amphibians:

2. Emerald glass frog (Espadarana prosoblepon/Centrolene prosoblepon)

3. Rufous-eyed brook frog (Duellmanohyla rufioculis)

4. Masked tree frog

5. Slim-fingered rain frog

6. Brilliant forest frog

January 11th, 2023

Monteverde

Birds:

24. Emerald toucanet

25. Resplendent quetzal

26. Slaty-backed nightingale-thrush

27. Violet sabrewing

28. Grey-breasted wood-wren

29. Slate-throated redstart

30. Collared trogon

We also visited a hummingbird gallery but 1. I don’t know if that counts as wild even though technically the birds were wild and 2. I can’t find the list

Mammals:

10. Watson’s climbing rat

January 12th, 2023

Monteverde -> Guanacaste area

Birds:

31. White-winged dove

Mammals:

11. Mantled howler, Alouatta palliata

January 13th, 2023

Rincon de la Vieja

Birds:

32. Tufted owl

Reptiles:

3. Black spiny-tailed iguana

Also, today (February 12th, 2023)(southern Wisconsin, US), to return to the incredibly mundane:
Birds:
33. House sparrow
34. American crow
(and a handful of heard-only)
 
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ifesbob said:
With scientific name or just to the species level? I will fix it, just need to know what the expectation is.
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Well scientific names would be handy, but more so you have a bunch of animals listed there literally saying "don't know the species".
 
@ifesbob I can help you out a bit with a few of these :)

ifesbob said:
5. Blue heron
Click to expand...

There's two of these in Costa Rica, Great and Little.

ifesbob said:
3. Coati (I don’t know the species)
4. Spider monkey (Geoffroy’s, as far as I can tell)
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ifesbob said:
8. Agouti (don’t know the species)
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ifesbob said:
11. Howler monkeys
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There's only one species for each in Costa Rica:
List of mammals of Costa Rica - Wikipedia

ifesbob said:
18. Blue crowned motmot
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Blue-crowned got split into several species; yours should be Lesson's Motmot (Momotus lessonii)
 
ifesbob said:
We also visited a hummingbird gallery but 1. I don’t know if that counts as wild even though technically the birds were wild
Click to expand...
What does this mean? Were they captive or wild? If wild, why were there hummingbirds at this particular spot, and was the viewing easy? I thought hummingbird feeders were illegal in Costa Rica?
 
birdsandbats said:
What does this mean? Were they captive or wild? If wild, why were there hummingbirds at this particular spot, and was the viewing easy? I thought hummingbird feeders were illegal in Costa Rica?
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They were wild, but there were feeders. It's right up next to Monteverde Reserve proper, might even have been part of it, so it's not some person's hummingbird feeder. It was near a resturaunt. The viewing could not have been easier, they were right up next to you.
 
ifesbob said:
They were wild, but there were feeders. It's right up next to Monteverde Reserve proper, might even have been part of it, so it's not some person's hummingbird feeder. It was near a resturaunt. The viewing could not have been easier, they were right up next to you.
Click to expand...
In that case, of course they count as wild.
 
I have lost the ability to fix misidentifications.

ifesbob said:
5. Blue heron
Click to expand...
Little blue heron

ifesbob said:
1. White-faced capuchin
Click to expand...

Panamanian

ifesbob said:
1. Leaf-cutter ants

2. Hermit crab
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I can't identify these to species, so they shouldn't count. I did find a family the hermit crabs may have belonged to (Paguridae), and I could probably narrow down the leaf-cutter ants down, but that's a lot of time to put into that.

ifesbob said:
6. Bottlenose dolphin
Click to expand...
Common bottlenose dolphin

ifesbob said:
Black-footed ant shrike
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Black hooded ant shrike

ifesbob said:
Blue Morpho butterfly
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Morpho peleides

ifesbob said:
Tufted owl
Click to expand...

Crested owl
 
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Yesterday I went up to the Manawatu Estuary (at Foxton, north of Wellington). I stopped off at the Waikanae Estuary first to see what was around, picking up a NZ Dabchick (missed at the start of the year) and some Bar-tailed Godwits. On the way north from there we dropped into the Otaki Sewage Ponds to find (eventually) one of the Black-fronted Dotterels which are resident there. At Foxton the tide was high so most of the waders were bunched up on a sand island near the viewing platform - a large flock of South Island Pied Oystercatchers and Bar-tailed Godwits with about twenty Red Knots scattered through them. On a nearby island a lone Pacific Golden Plover was wandering about, and blending in with the sand was a group of five Wrybills. Final bird were Black-billed Gulls.


BIRDS:
61) New Zealand Dabchick Poliocephalus rufopectus
62) Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica
63) Black-fronted Dotterel Elseyornis melanops
64) Red (Lesser) Knot Calidris canutus
65) South Island Pied Oystercatcher Himantopus finschi
66) Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva
67) Wrybill Anarhynchus frontalis
68) Black-billed Gull Larus bulleri

MAMMALS:
3) New Zealand Fur Seal Arctocephalus forsteri
 
Chlidonias said:
African Buffalo, or Eland?
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African buffalo! Should have been Syncerus caffer. Eland were present, but we had seen them previously.
 
A full-day excursion to the famous (infamous?) Oostvaardersplassen yielded a stunning set of raptors. They were out in full force and the entire day was filled with sightings of harriers, goshawks, buzzards, falcons and about a dozen or so white-tailed eagles - although the number of new species is limited given that other trips this year have also been good for raptors. There was waterfowl all of the show of course, and we took a small trip outside the area to find scaup, which can be a difficult one for the year list for me. Add a couple of odds and ends and you have a great birding day!

Birds
114. Willow Tit, Poecile montanus
115. Northern Goshawk, Accipiter gentilis
116. Rough-legged Buzzard, Buteo lagopus
117. European Golden Plover, Pluvialis apricaria
118. Common Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus
119. Greater Scaup, Aythya marila

Mammals
11. Red Deer, Cervus elaphus
 
ifesbob said:
January 5th, 2023
Click to expand...
-Black vulture Coragyps atratus
-Magnificent frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Realized I missed two from this day.

Also, all of my misidentifcations/lack-of identifications should be fixed, let me know if there are any other issues
 
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ifesbob said:
-Black vulture Coragyps atratus
-Magnificent frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Realized I missed two from this day.

Also, all of my misidentifcations/lack-of identifications should be fixed, let me know if there are any other issues
Click to expand...
What were the hummingbird species you saw?
 
birdsandbats said:
What were the hummingbird species you saw?
Click to expand...
(black vulture and frigate bird were 35 and 36)
January 11th, 2023
37. Lesser violetear Colibri cyanotus
38. Green-crowned brilliant Heliodoxa jacula
39. Stripe-tailed hummingbird Eupherusa eximia
40. Purple-throated mountaingem Lampornis calolaemus
41. Magenta-throated woodstar Philodice bryantae

(coppery-headed emerald and violet saberwing was also there but I'd already counted it)
 
Lota lota said:
43 Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
44 Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)
Click to expand...
45 Eurasian pymgy owl (Glaucidium passerinum)
The owl has been reported from the same island that my local zoo Skansen is located on : Djurgården.The island is pretty large and is part of a protected area,it consists of old growth deciduous and mixed forest.Pygmy owl aren't extremely rare in Stockholm municipality ,but they are hard to spot and often found in pretty remote places.Djurgården only being 10 minutes by tram from central Stockholm,and the owl being unusually unshy attracted many birders.It was an amazing experience seeing the bird and it was a real nice lifer.
46 Common raven (Corvus corax)
47 Eurasian siskin (Spinus spinus)
48 European greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
49 Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)
50 Marsh tit (Poecile palustris)
51 Bearded reedling (Panurus biarmicus)
52 Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
 
Masindi, Uganda

Mammal
50. Straw-coloured fruit bat Eidolon helvum

Royal Mile

Habitat: lowland rainforest.

Mammals
51. Blue monkey Cercopithecus mitis
52. Beaded wood mouse Hylomyscus aeta

Birds
304. Narina trogon Apaloderma narina
305. White-thighed hornbill Bycanistes albotibialis
306. Yellow-crested woodpecker Chloropicus xantholophus
307. Chocolate-backed kingfisher Halcyon badia
308. Chestnut wattle-eye Platysteira castanea
309. African shrike-flycatcher Megabyas flammulatus
310. Little green sunbird Anthreptes seimundi
311. Copper sunbird Cinnyris cupreus
312. Black bishop Euplectes gierowii
313. Spectacled weaver Ploceus ocularis
314. Compact weaver Ploceus superciliosus
315. Brown twinspot Clytospiza monteiri
316. Fawn-breasted waxbill Estrilda paludicola
317. African firefinch Lagonosticta rubricata
318. Green-backed twinspot Mandingoa nitidula
319. Western citril Crithagra frontalis
320. Brimstone canary Crithagra sulphurata
321. Western nicator Nicator chloris (New family)
322. Buff-throated apalis Apalis rufogularis
323. African yellow warbler Iduna natalensis
324. White-headed saw-wing Psalidoprocne albiceps
325, Slender greenbull Stelgidillas gracilirostris
326. Chestnut-capped flycatcher Erythrocercus mccallii (new Family)
327. Green hylia Hylia prasina (new Family)
328. Sooty flycatcher Bradomis fuliginosus
329. Brown-backed scrub wren Cercotrichas hartlaubi
330. Red-capped robin-chat Cossypha natalensis
331. African forest-flycatcher Fraseria ocreata
332. Grey-throated tit-flycatcher Myioparus griseigularis
333. Rufous flycatcher-thrush Stizorhina fraseri
 
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