by Jack Ewing
A flock of at least thirty fast flying, scandalously loud, greenish-yellow birds flew directly overhead. My first thought was that they must be orange-chinned parakeets (Brotogeris jugularis), which I see almost 
every day, but these birds looked different. On the second pass I paid close attention. They were larger even than white-crowned parrots (Pionus senilis), common to the area, and they had long pointed tails.
The next morning several flocks of well over 50 individuals each flew back and forth directly over Hacienda Barú Lodge squawking raucously and making their presence known. It was reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1963 horror movie, The Birds. One of our bird watching guides identified them as crimson-fronted parakeets (Aratinga finschi), a species I had seen only twice before. We jokingly dubbed them “loud-mouthed parakeets”.
The next day I saw a large flock flitting through the branches in a copse of teak trees. It looked like they were eating immature teak seeds. As of this writing at the end of January 2016 they have made their presence known in a loud voice every single day for the last three weeks.
The crimson-fronted parakeet is common in the Central Valley and the Caribbean slope up to 1800 meters above sea-level, and they have always been seen occasionally in small groups or pairs in the Costa Ballena and the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor. We will probably never know for sure why so many of them are visiting us this year. I suspect that the extremely dry weather during the year 2015 created conditions favorable to their presence, but more than likely numerous factors are involved in the phenomenon. Only Mother Nature knows for sure, and she sometimes guards her secrets well.
