Isn't he great?

Here's one reason I love Costa Rica. This is what was sitting on my porch a few minutes ago:

Great Kiskadee

I put some sunflower seeds out for the dogs to eat, of course they hated them. But Mr. Great Kiskadee seems to love them. He keeps dashing back and forth from the dog bowl to the railing. That's not the best photo, so here's one Michael Fowler took in Manuel Antonio, found on Wikipedia:



Also in our backyard, we've seen Blue-gray tanagers, Squirrel cuckoos, and a variety of LBJs ("little brown jobs," in birding lingo). A flock of green parrots flies over the house every day. We also put in a few hummingbird- and butterfly-friendly plants a few months ago, and have at least 10 different species of butterfly visiting our yard (including the beautiful Blue morpho, though they seem to prefer dog poo and rotten fruit. Really.). The wildlife in this little ithsmus is definitely incredible.

P.S. Mr. Sunflower-Seed Snatcher has returned, with a few friends in tow. He is extremely possessive about "his" dog bowl, however. hee hee...