Experts Register Five
New Species of Birds in Costa Rica
(InfoWeb Press) Five new species of birds
have joined the official list of Costa Rican
bird species this year. The fact was
confirmed via a publication made by the
Costa Rican Ornithological Association, or
AOCR as abbreviated in Spanish, in the last
edition of the prestigious Zeledonia
magazine.
According to the report, the species are not
new to the world of science, they are known
bird species of the World, however these
birds have never before been spotted in
Costa Rica, and now their presence, in the
country, has been proven for the first time.
The first of these birds is called the
Christmas Shearwater whose scientific name
is Puffinus nativitatis.
It belongs to the Puffinus genus which is
amply distributed throughout numerous
archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean including
Hawaii. It is estimated that only some 5000
individuals of this specie exists in the
wild.
The second addition to the Costa Rican
birding list is the Accipiter poliogaster or
Grey-bellied Goshawk. This specie is a bird
of prey, meaning it searches for food using
its beak. The specie inhabits tropical and
subtropical forests and jungles of lower
regions. They have been spotted around most
of South America. As its name indicates, it
is distinguished for having a greyish
colored belly.
The so called Black-legged Kittiwak gull (Rissa
tridactyla), is a medium-sized, stocky bird
with short legs and a chipped tail. It is
the third specie to be added into the
national inventory of birds this year. It is
one of two species that belong to the Rissa
genus and owes its name to the
distinguishing characteristic of the genus
of having its rear finger atrophied.
Physically, this specie is differentiated
for its yellow and long beak without spots;
the lower body and head is white while its
back and the upper part of its wings is grey
and it has ever darker grey colored wing
tips. They also have dark grey or reddish
colored legs.
Its behavior is recognizable because they
are sea birds and only come to shore to
nest.
Until recently it was believed that this
specie was only distributed throughout the
oceans of the northern hemisphere but in
March of 2009, Nicole Michel, a bird
specialist, was able to spot an individual
of this kind at the mouth of the Tortuguero
river located within the Tortuguero National
Park in Limon.
According to Michel, what was spotted was
one lone individual with “winter plumage”
posing on the beach, but that was enough to
register it in the country.
A bird called Veraguan Mango (Anthracothorax
veraguensis) was also included in the 2009
national bird inventory by experts of the
Costa Rican Ornithological Association.
The bird is light and small. It presents a
brightly, metallic-green colored plumage and
its beak is almost as long as its body. The
male bird´s neck is frequently of a blueish
color.
Until now, scientific evidence showed that
this bird only inhabited the neighboring
country of Panama. None the less,
specialists Kevin Easley and Steven Easley
where able to observed various individuals
in a garden located in Golfito, Puntarenas.
The Veraguan Mango has been part of the
endangered species list since July 2006.
The last specie to complete the list of bird
novelties for this year is a kind of
hummingbird called Lepidopyga
coeruleogularis.
This is another minute bird which also
boasts a very visible and metallic colored
plumage whose beak is almost as long as its
body.
Similar to the spotting of the Veraguan
Mango, the Easley scientists confirmed the
presence of this specie amongst red flowers
called Erythrina in Puntarenas.
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
