New record in Lapa Rios!!

The Painted bunting (Passerina ciris), a beautiful bird seen by Nito, our Birdwatcher Guide at Lapa Rios is first reccord, "this colorful bird is really hard to see" he explained.
The Painting Bunting is an uncommon and local winter resident on Pacific slope.Breeds in South USA and North Mexico, winters from North Mexico and Florida to West Panama.Forages in low a mid dense cover of brushy second growth, overgrown pastures, high grass, or river side stands of wild cane, often alone or in small groups. Eat seeds, some fruits and insects.
Thank`s Nito to share this photo!

The Painted bunting (Passerina ciris), a beautiful bird seen by Nito, our Birdwatcher Guide at Lapa Rios is first reccord, "this colorful bird is really hard to see" he explained.
The Painting Bunting is an uncommon and local winter resident on Pacific slope.Breeds in South USA and North Mexico, winters from North Mexico and Florida to West Panama.Forages in low a mid dense cover of brushy second growth, overgrown pastures, high grass, or river side stands of wild cane, often alone or in small groups. Eat seeds, some fruits and insects.
Thank`s Nito to share this photo!

Rare finding!

Juan, our general manager shares his story:

It´s 9:30 pm I´m working in my office when Toño our night guard calls me on the radio and tells me that in front of room number 4 there is a small snake that he has never seen in his life. I´m really tired but I just can´t NOT go to check it out. It was raining a little bit and I had no great expectations, most people dont really pay attention to the beautiful details of snakes and most likely it was going to be a commonly seen snake. The second I saw it I new what it was. What a treat and a very surprising one!!! Even though I knew about the snake I had never seen it as its a very rare snake. This might not be due to a low population but for the fact that is a canopy species that lives high up in the canopy of pristine rain-forests where humans seldom visit. Its scientific name is Ungalophis panamensis and is the only representative of its family in Costa Rica. Its a small Non- posinonous snake with a recorded maximun lenth o f 67 centimiters that kills its pray by contriction much of its natural history remains unknown and my herpetology book registers only 17 specimens collected in Costa Rica. This individual was very tame and did not attempt to strike at any moment and most of our guests where able to photograph this beautiful and rare snake before we set her free again. We have no idea how it got there, she might have fallen down form a tree, we are just very very fortunate that this little snake fell from the sky and that our friend Toño recognaized how special this snake actually was. Thank You toño!