Curu Wildlife Refuge
Curu Wildlife Refuge is home to endless amounts of trees fruiting with coconuts, mangrove estuaries, and rows upon rows of mango trees that have long since forgotten how to fruit. Amongst one of these patches of mango trees is our other banding station, and tucked along the trails that bisect a unique edge habitat of White Mangrove trees are our nets. We placed the 22 nets strategically so they would bisect the many attributes of this unique habitat. We catch a wide variety of resident species, whose unique attributes and colors blend them into the harsh environment of this unique tropical...
Read MoreKentucky Warbler Recapture and Cabo Blanco Birds
The first session of our fourth year at Cabo Blanco is in the books. Cabo Blanco is Costa Rica’s first national preserve, established over fifty years ago. The preserve is mostly one generation of forest that has re-grown over a 60-year period. It was once all primary forest, but was cut down for farmland. We start the morning walking up a winding trail to our banding station tucked away near a few fallen trees. Along trails we’ve secretly cut are twenty well-placed mist nests to catch a wide variety of avifauna that uses the preserves habitat. Once we reach the base camp every morning we...
Read MoreRuby-throated Hummingbird recaptures
Yesterday we recaptured two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) from previous years here in Costa Rica for the first time. Both of these females were banded last year and returned to the exact same location. They traveled most likely over 4,000 miles round-trip since the last time we saw them. Weighing less than a penny it is incredible what these small tenacious birds can do. Sean Graesser RTPI Affiliate
Read MoreRecaptured Northern Waterthrush
RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser discusses a recaptured Northern Waterthrush (Parkesia noveboracensis) that has been spending multiple winters in Costa Rica’s Curu Wildlife Reserve. He talks about the importance of such a finding and the goals of this tropical research as well as why the birds of our backyards need our help. Video by RTPI President Twan Leenders in December 2013.
Read MoreProthonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) recapture by Sean Graesser
This Prothonotary Warbler was originally banded in 2011 as a bird of at least two years of age. We recaptured this bird this year at our site. This mean the bird has traveled at least 27,000 miles so far in his life. It has returned to the same site in a Mangrove estuary in Costa Rica now for three years. It always amazes me to think about the incredible journeys these songbirds make and the need to preserve the habitat on both ends of their life cycles.
Read More
