BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA — I’m finishing up a few days in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where summer is drawing to a close and life goes on as usual for 13 million Argentines. It’s a huge, bustling city, and it has very few birds. For the first couple of days, I was convinced that the only bird species present were House Sparrows and Rock Doves.

But yesterday, I picked up a few more species, including Eared Dove (the Mourning Dove equivalent), Cattle Tyrant (a ground-dwelling flycatcher species), and Rufous Hornero (a common, noisy ovenbird).

There is an ecological reserve along the Rio Plato, but we didn’t have time to go. We’re leaving for Paraguay by overnight bus today, so I’m hoping for better luck in a less developed part of the world.

To get from Costa Rica to Argentina, we flew through Miami, where we had a 24-hour layover. I didn’t see any life birds while running around the Keys and the Everglades, but I did see my first Great “White” Heron, and I got some nice pictures, which I hope to post at some point.

Anyway, off to Paraguay!

MORAVIA, COSTA RICA — I arrived in Costa Rica on Monday. It’s my first time here. I’ve been staying in a suburb of San José, which isn’t particularly bird-rich. Some of the city birds are common in Texas (e.g., Great-tailed Grackles and White-winged Doves), others reach the northernmost limit of their distribution in southern Texas (e.g., Red-billed Pigeon and Clay-colored Thrush (Robin)). There are Central American specialties too of course, like Rufous-collared Sparrow, and….

This is a Blue-crowned Motmot (Motmotus motmota). Wow! That blue gleams with a breathtaking brilliance. The bird’s racket-shaped central tail feathers are obscured in this photo, unfortunately.

Today we visited the gardens at Hotel Bougainvillea — crammed with spectacular flowers and other plants. There were birds around too, including North American refugees like Yellow Warbler and Summer Tanager, and some Central American birds I haven’t had time to look up yet.