Osa Peninsula Chronicles

Lately we have been seeing Crested Guans (Penelope purpurascens) along the road up in the trees heading up to Friends of the Osa’s Osa Biodiversity Center at Cerro Osa.  I first noticed a family of 4 Guan individuals in one of our forest restoration plots a few weeks back as I was conducting bird counts.  [...]

On June 17th, teachers from a number of local schools participated in a workshop on the biology, ecology and conservation of sea turtles at the Osa Biodiversity Center.  The workshop is an integrated part of Friends of the Osa’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program and was given by Pilar Bernal, FOO’s environmental education coordinator. The goal [...]

The Band-tailed Barbthroat (Threnetes ruckeri) is a medium sized hermit in the hummingbird family.  They are a common resident of wet lowland forest on the Caribbean and Pacific slopes and range from Guatemala on down to Western Venezuela and Ecuador.  They are often found along edges and the understory of old second growth feeding on [...]

In preparation for the upcoming sea turtle nesting season, Friends of the Osa along with a number of local businesses and community members, organized a beach clean-up. The clean-up was seen as a necessity by Osa residents from Matapalo to Carate. For some reason, the amount of washed-up garbage and debris on the southern beaches [...]

The Buff-throated Foliage Gleaner (Automolus ochrolaemus) is part of the ovenbird family, an extremely diverse group of birds in form and habits.  Besides, foliage gleaners, there are treerunners, leaftossers, castlebuilders and treehunters.  The ovenbird name comes from nests of many species that resemble “baking ovens” placed on the ground.  Most species in the ovenbird family [...]

Sloths usually rank high on the must-sees for visitors to the Osa Peninsula. However, because of their sluggish behavior and artful disguise, they are often very difficult to find. Imagine our surprise when we spotted this one at eye level as we returned to the Greg Gund Conservation Center, part of Friends of the Osa’s [...]