Overland in the Americas: Ring my Bell.....Bird!

The three wattled bellbird is a most excellent bird indeed, it was what enticed us back to Monteverde for a second visit and it was well worth it they are amazing characters. We saw two different males both calling from perches. While he was calling one of them was spitting up avocado stones!

Check out his moustache like wattles which wiggle as he calls.

As if the Bellbird wasn't exciting enough we also saw Long tailed manakins, all before breakfast. There were two males, one was a juvenile accompanying the older more experienced male on his perch, they are apprentices for many years learning to display before they get their own patch. We only caught a brief glimpse of these guys before they zipped off at high speed.

We walked up and down the steep trails at San Gerardo where we had been told there was an umbrella bird (looks like Elvis http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=4521) but it was impossible to see as it hides during the day under mossy clumps high in the trees. We saw lots of other birds and got great views down to Lake Arenal.

Can you spot Arenal volcano? (Its on the right)

See there is a volcano there (we saw it hours later on the way back up)

This is a tarantula wasp, can you tell where it likes to lay its eggs from the name?

This millipede was more of a monopede as something had bitten all its legs off, apart from one.

Weird plant

Well camouflaged frog

Us with Esteban at the end of our days birding

The climb back up the hill was pretty long, hence the copious amount of sweat on our backs

Waiting for the bus in the middle of Santa Elena we saw these two dogs.

One last birding opportunity...we went looking for a screech owl, didn't see it but saw a crested owl and heard a different dialect of Bellbird which sounds completely different to the day before. Esteban our guide had heard one individual do both types of call the day before.