On February 7th we went  to La Paz Wildlife Refuge about an hour or so from San Jose.  Today was going to be my attempt to capture hummingbirds in flight.  This private wildlife refuge included an aviary, butterfly observatory, monkeys, frogs  and a hummingbird garden.  We spent most of our time photographing the hummingbirds but I did check out some of the other exhibits as well.

 This was one of my first attempts at shooting hummingbirds in flight on this trip.  It is pretty much impossible to get the entire bird sharp without using flash.  I felt that I was fortunate just to get the bird in the picture (no kidding that is how fast some of them can move ).    Because these birds are so speedy you need a very high shutter speed to try to slow down the action so the bird is not blurry.    In camera terms  this  means you need to use a wide  "aperture opening " or small f-stop   in order to get enough light so you can use the high shutter speeds.   However, using the wide aperture  reduces the depth of field (sharpness) so that less of the picture is in focus.    Also, by using a "telephoto" lens which has the reach allowing you to photograph the bird from far away also negatively affects the total amount of sharpness due to the optics of the lens.  Another way  to increase the light is to increase the "ISO" in the camera setting  but this does degrade the quality of the image.  For those of you used to the film days, ISO is pretty much the same thing as ASA or speed of the film.    So when you are in the field photographing you are constantly changing camera settings to try to find the best balance.    I tried to get as much of the bird in focus as possible but always attempted to  focus on the eyes and head.   In the above photo you can see that the eye and area that is in the same "focal plane" as the eye  is pretty much in focus with the rest of the bird being blurry.  

The Brown Violetear is  11.5 cm long and weighs 6.5-7 grams.  The bird is mainly dull brown, with a rufous rump and greyer underparts.  There is also a violet patch running back and down from the eye.  The bill is relatively short and almost straight.

This is a Green-crowned Brilliant which is a large robust hummingbird.  The bird is a resident breeder in the highlands from Costa Rica to western Ecuador.  The male birds are about 13cm long and weigh 9.5 grams while the female is 12 cm long and weighs 8 grams.  

After lunch I checked out the frogs deciding that they would be much easier to photograph.  This is a red-eyed tree frog.   As the name states, these frogs have red eyes with vertically narrowed pupils.  Its body is a vibrant green with some yellow and blue colouring.  Its webbed feet and toes are orange or yellow.

Scientists believe their scarlet peepers are meant to shock predators who hesitate allowing the frog to leap to safety.  These guys are great jumpers which I saw repeatedly.  Just as I would get ready to take a shot, the frog was gone!  

These guys are not poisonous and rely on camouflage to protect themselves. 

The Blue-jeans or Strawberry Poison-dart Frog is one of the most prominent frogs in Costa Rica.  This frog has a brilliant red head and black and blue-to-purple legs.  This frog is not known to be be lethal to humans but its skin secretions may have some unpredictable effects.  Adults of this small species are generally 19 to 24 mm(3/4 to one inch) long.

The frog's bright colours warn off predators since they signal the toxicity that the frog is named after.  However, these frogs have few predators and once they reach adulthood they can live 5 to 6 years.  However, their eggs are preyed on by fungi, worms, snakes and even other Blue-jeans.  The Poison-dart eats small invertebrates such as ants and mites.  

After checking out the frogs I went to the butterfly observatory but I didn't stay long as there is  a very good  observatory near Niagara Falls.  This is a blue Morpho butterfly.  When the butterfly spreads its wings,  the inside of the wings are a beautiful blue color.  

The Violet Sabrewing is a very large hummingbird native to Costa Rica.  The food that these birds like to eat is nectar.  

The Violet Sabrewing is 15 cm long; the male weighs 11.5 g and the female 9.5 g.  

Mountain-gems is a medium to large sized hummingbird (10 to 13 cm).  This is a female Mountain-gem which are distinguished from the male by  having a dull coloured throat and being  different  in some  plumage details.   These birds like to eat nectar taken from a variety of small flowers.

A perched Mountain-gem female.  

This  Purple-throated Mountain-gem is a male  hummingbird which breeds in the mountains of southern Nicaragua, northern Costa Rica and western Panama.  This bird is 10.5 cm long and weighs 4.8 to 6.0 grams.  Their shortish black bill is slightly curved.   As the previous picture showed the female Mountain-gem has a dull coloured throat.  

The Coppery-headed Emerald is a small hummingbird endemic to Costa Rica.  It measures only 7.6 cm (3 inches) in length and weighs only 3 grams (.11 oz).  Like all hummingbirds, the Coppery-headed Emerald feeds on nectar and small invertebrates.  

The male above has a distinctive coppery crown and rump with a whole green belly and white vent.    The female's belly is white.  

A perched Coppery-headed Emerald. 

The Green-crowned Brilliant is a large robust hummingbird.  This hummingbird inhabits wet mountain forests.  The male Green-crowned Brilliant is 13 cm long and weighs 9.5 grams.  It is mainly bronze-green with a glittering green crown, forehead, throat and breast.  It has a white spot behind the eye and a blue-black tail.  

The Fiery-throated Hummingbird is a medium-sized hummingbird which breeds only in the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama.   The bird is 11 cm long and weighs 5.7 grams.

The food of this species is nectar taken from a variety of small flowers.  Like other hummingbirds they also eat small insects for a source of protein.  The males defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories and are dominant over most other hummingbirds.  They will however, allow females to share their food resources.  

The Green Thorntail is a small hummingbird that  is a resident breeder from Costa Rica to western Ecuador.  The Green Thorntail has mainly green upper parts, a white rump band and a blackish rump and tail.  It weighs just 3 grams.   The 10 cm long male has the long wire-like tail that gives this species its name and green underparts.  

I was able to take a few landscape photos in the area.  

The last shot of the day.