Cymbidium orchid

CYMBIDIUM ORCHID, CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN, GLENCOE, ILLINOIS, FEBRUARY 22, 2015

Pentax K-3
Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro
1/1600 sec. f11
ISO 1600

This portrait of an orchid opening its petals was the best shot from an hour wandering around the Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden this morning. I used a high ISO for a shutter speed fast enough and a f/stop small enough to get a sharp photo in iffy light. Tripods and monopods aren't allowed because of the crowds. (The Garden does permit them at the fair on more lightly attended Wednesdays, however.)

Iguana No. 2

GREEN IGUANA, LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 190mm
1/640 sec. f6.3
ISO 1600

It's a green iguana, but the males of the species famously turn bright orange just as breeding season begins. It was captured through a remarkably clean and clear side window of a tourist bus  trundling slowly through the small  town of Los Chiles on the Rio Frio in northern Costa Rica.

Iguana

GREEN IGUANA, MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK, QUEPOS, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 28, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 190mm
1/320 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Iguanas are as common in Central America as squirrels are in Chicago suburbs. I was sitting on a stone wall near the Manuel Antonio National Park gift shop when this specimen suddenly popped out of a hole under the wall and had a good look at me.

Common Basilisk

COMMON BASILISK LIZARD, RIO FRIO, NICARAGUA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/200 sec. f10
ISO 800

Often called the "Jesus lizard" for its ability to run atop the water on huge feet equipped with flaps of skin along the edges, the basilisk is common in sea-level waterways of Central and northern South American rainforests. Our Costa Rican tour boat had crossed the border into Nicaragua when this photo was taken.

Mantled Howler

MANTLED HOWLER MONKEY, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/400 sec. f9
ISO 800

It wasn't only birds we saw during our tour boat trip up the Rio Frio in northern Costa Rica. The trees were full of monkeys, especially the mantled howler species. Their howls can travel three miles through dense forests, and biologists think howling is the monkeys' version of social media, their way of keeping in touch with one another without having to move from their favorite branches.

Great Curassow

GREAT CURASSOW, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/80 sec. f8
ISO 1600

Technically this is a substandard photograph, having been shot through the window of a moving tour bus, but I'm including it on this blog because the pheasant-sized great curassow, an endangered species, isn't often seen in the wild. Our driver and guide grew greatly excited when they spotted it in the road near Los Chiles. This is a female; the male is even odder-looking. They live in the rain forests of central America.

Roadside Hawk

ROADSIDE HAWK, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/640 sec. f9
ISO 300

The small Roadside Hawk is common throughout southern Mexico, Central America and northern South America and is often hard to see in riverine rain forest, but our guide saw it quickly and spotted his tour boat close underneath the bird.

Tricolored Heron

LITTLE BLUE HERON, TARCOLES RIVER, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 27, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/250 sec. f9
ISO 800

This young Tricolored Heron, captured from a sightseeing boat on the tidal flats of the Tarcoles River estuary, is also known as the Louisiana Heron and is often seen on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico down through Central America.

Osprey

OSPREY, TARCOLES RIVER, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 27, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 260mm
1/500 sec. f9
ISO 800

It's entirely possible that this osprey, familiar all over North America from spring to fall, spent the summer in my neighborhood of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before heading to Central America for the winter. I shot his portrait from a tourist boat passing underneath.

Magnificent Frigatebird

MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD, TARCOLES RIVER, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 27, 2015

Both photos:
Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm

Frigatebirds are probably the most common sea birds in Costa Rica, next to the brown pelican. The top photo is of a juvenile recognizable by the white face and belly as well as unkempt tailfeathers. The bottom is of a sleek black adult with well-formed forked tail.

1/2000 sec. f10, ISO 400

1/1600 sec. f9, ISO 800

Northern Jacana

NORTHERN JACANA, LA FORTUNA, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 25, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/800 sec. f7.1
ISO 1600

This common but odd-looking tropical bird is a wader with huge feet usually found walking atop vegetation just under the surface of calm ponds and rivers. The yellow decoration on its forehead is a wattle.

White-winged Dove

WHITE-WINGED DOVE, PLAYA MANSITA, GUANACASTE, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 26, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/250 sec. f10
ISO 1600

As common in southwestern U.S. cities as pigeons are in New York's Central Park, the white-winged dove winters in Central America. It sure slathers on the blue eye shadow, doesn't it?

Neotropic Cormorant

NEOTROPIC CORMORANT, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/1250 sec. f8
ISO 800

Our sightseeing boat was chugging toward the Nicaraguan border on the Rio Frio when it hove into view of this cormorant. The species is smaller than the unbiquitous Double-Crested Cormorants that haunt Lake Superior, but it is just as ugly.

Anhinga

ANHINGA, RIO FRIO NEAR LOS CHILES, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 24, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 300mm
1/1000 f7.1
ISO 800

Variously called the piano bird, snakebird, darter and water turkey, the anhinga is common throughout the warmer climes of North and Central America. Its feathers are not buoyant, allowing the bird to swim deep underwater, spearing fish with its stiletto bill. Because the feathers soak up water, the anhinga often sits on a branch drying its wings in the sun.

Nicaraguan Grackle

NICARAGUAN GRACKLE, ALAJUELA, COSTA RICA, JANUARY 22, 2015

Pentax K-3
Pentax 55-300 at 230mm
1/1000 sec. f8
ISO 800

This female Nicaraguan grackle evidently was gathering building supplies for a nest on a coffee plantation in the shadow of the Poas volcano in central Costa Rica, more than 100 miles from the species' normal range on the Frio River close to the Nicaraguan border.