Costa Rica - Day 3 - Have you ever seen the Wren?

March 7, 2018 - This was our last day at Rancho Naturalista. A short foray at the wooden bench area gave us our 21st lifer. The photo quality wasn't that good and we had to ask local guide Harry later that morning what species it was. Paltry Tyrannulet, he said. Now why in the world would scientists name a cute bird "paltry"? Was it that insignificant? It was small, yes, but there are a lot more birds smaller than this.

While waiting for our ride to take us to our next destination, we were given good photo ops by a couple of birds. They were not lifers but now we got much better shots of these two.

The Collared Aracari

and the Scarlet-rumped Cacique.

We arrived at the Cerro Lodge around 4 pm. Thanks to Diana, the manager, we were upgraded to a bigger room (and closer to the office/dining area). After a short rest, we stayed at the dining area which was also the place to view the birds. Actually, even before we were showed our room, I already heard some loud twittering. Then I saw the source of that sound - a couple of wrens singing from the tree near us. "Have you ever seen the wren?" I asked Cynthia and pointed to her our lifer number 22 - the Rufous-backed Wren. 

These birds were so used to humans that they also partake of the buffet meals offered to the lodge guests.

At the viewing area, there were just the usual Clay-colored Thrushes and Baltimore Orioles. After a light dinner we retired to our room and went to bed early anticipating an exciting day tomorrow.