Today we meet the blue grosbeak. This little songbird is a sometimes resident, sometimes migrant whose coloration has direct effects on its ability to welcome baby blue grosbeaks into the world. The blue grosbeak’s scientific name points out the importance of updating your bird book collection with the newest editions. […]
Vincent Losasso
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Today we meet the blue grosbeak. This little songbird is a sometimes resident, sometimes migrant whose coloration has direct effects on its ability to welcome baby blue grosbeaks into the world. The blue grosbeak’s scientific name points out the importance of updating your bird book collection with the newest editions. […]
I’ve always had a fondness for snakes. When I was young, I used to keep spare sheets of metal on the edges of the forest on our property in order to attract snakes to the metal’s warmth and cover. I’d flip the metal and grab the snakes to get a […]
Moving isn’t fun in any country. Nothing extols the virtues of minimalism like picking up all your stuff and putting it back down again a few times. That being said, sometimes a move is necessary, which was the case for my family in recent days. We did all of the […]
As I take a break from throwing all of my family’s worldly belongings into totes with duct tape labels, I start to reflect on the fact that I’m moving, yet again, to a new house in Costa Rica. In the midst of preparing to leave house number 6 for house […]
What do you get when you combine the broad wings and big body of a raptor with a little curved beak on a small dove-like head? You get the gray-headed kite. The gray-headed kite (Leptodon cayanensis) is known as the gavilán cabecigris in Spanish. It’s one of the 205 members […]
In Costa Rica, a land of mostly small creatures, a giant lurks in the shadows. Costa Rica is not Africa, where a huge number of species pack more bulk than a full-grown man. Most of Costa Rica’s creatures are small enough to pick up and embrace in a bear hug […]
Today we meet Costa Rica’s largest species of toucan. The blue-footed, large-beaked, incessant singing chestnut-mandibled toucan. Let’s start with the name game. The chestnut-mandibled toucan (Ramphastos ambiguus swainsonii) is a subspecies of the yellow-throated toucan (Ramphastos ambiguous). There are three subspecies of yellow-throated toucan, with the other two sharing the […]
Today we discuss the biggest toad you’ve ever seen, the giant toad. The giant toad is also known as the cane toad in English. In Spanish, it’s sapo gigante or sapo de caña, which are exact translations. The scientific name used to be (Bufo marinus) but was changed to (Rhinella […]
Two of the central aspects of my life are wildlife and being a dad. I’ve loved wildlife my entire life. I’m constantly studying mammals. I’m a sucker for a pretty bird. Heck, if you tell me you’ve got a scary-looking bug to show me, I’m all in. I also love […]