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JT Birds Birds. Community. Connection. Helping people connect with birds, nature, and each other through events, education, photography, and experiences.

JT Birds discovered birding at the beginning of the pandemic-and he's gone out EVERYDAY since, looking to learn and share more about this vast and fascinating subject.

Jumping back in time…digging through thousands of photos from what seems like another lifetime…but it was only 3 years a...
07/10/2026

Jumping back in time…digging through thousands of photos from what seems like another lifetime…but it was only 3 years ago.

We spent a full day with Harry Barnard of Rancho Naturalista, winding up late in the afternoon on the campus of CATIE.

Harry wanted to show us a Potoo that wasn’t there…but that’s ok, because we saw dozens of other birds.

There’s a marsh back there with herons and egrets and jacanas…

Young egrets were roosting in the trees. It was a loud, smelly and chaotic scene.

I’ve never seen anything else like it.

And I wanna go back…

Western Cattle Egret, CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica, 6/3/23

Cruising along the Tárcoles River with our guide Santi…Santi was an EXPERT birder and guide…one of the best we’ve ever b...
06/10/2026

Cruising along the Tárcoles River with our guide Santi…

Santi was an EXPERT birder and guide…one of the best we’ve ever birded with AND he was also the most skillful boat driver I’ve ever seen…

Our boat was pretty big…even though this was a private ride for Steph and me, I think it had room to seat 20 or more.

But Santi was able to tuck it RIGHT up next to the riverbanks…cutting the engine and letting us DRIFT next to the bushes…

Next to the muddy banks, with tiny tree crabs scurrying on every visible surface…

And yeah, they’ve got SOOO many cool little birds bouncing around in those branches…

Look, I snapped thousands of pics on that trip…and this was back in 2023…

I haven’t seen these photos in a long time, and I freely admit I don’t remember shooting everything on this trip…

Here’s what’s really cool. Years later, I’m finding myself learning about obscure species of Flycatchers…from my own photos.

Birds like this FLATBILL, that we only saw for a couple seconds…

And I think this is an incredible (if unintended) consequence of my work.

So much more coming…you just have no idea.

Also, huge thanks to Santi for the ID on this little guy. I was pretty sure I knew, but I like to get confirmation…and he was there with me.

I still regularly keep in touch with the majority of our international guides from previous birding trips. Santi and I still send each other hilarious voice messages…I sent him this pic tonight, and he replied with a voice memo of the ID…half asleep in the middle of the night on a birding trip to BRAZIL.

Mad respect. PURA VIDA!!! 👊👊 -JT

Yellow-olive Flatbill, Tárcoles River, Garabito, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, 6/8/23

If you know where (and WHEN) to look, you might find any of a half dozen migratory Tyrant Flycatchers in San Francisco.I...
05/10/2026

If you know where (and WHEN) to look, you might find any of a half dozen migratory Tyrant Flycatchers in San Francisco.

I spotted this Willow hunting behind the reeds…through a window in the tall grasses.

Note the date…late September is a great time to find birds like this one in Golden Gate Park. I’m writing this entry on October 4th, nearly two full weeks later…it wouldn’t surprise me if most have already passed through.

But they’ll be back…

Willow Flycatcher, North Lake, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 9/22/26

Walked past this sharp looking pair of Flycatchers early in the morning in the hills outside Cuiabá.We’d seen a handful ...
04/10/2026

Walked past this sharp looking pair of Flycatchers early in the morning in the hills outside Cuiabá.

We’d seen a handful of ’em at different points of our journey throughout Brazil.

I coulda watched them for hours, posing…preening…watching the way the light comes through their feathers.

I snapped a bunch more of these pics…I’ll try to share ’em with you sometime soon.

Cattle Tyrant, Nossa Senhora da Guia, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Brazil, 7/13/26

This was the first bird we saw on the Transpantaneira…At first glance, we had NO idea what it was…just a blur of stripes...
03/10/2026

This was the first bird we saw on the Transpantaneira…

At first glance, we had NO idea what it was…just a blur of stripes and those LONG tail feathers flying across the road.

After we drove up the highway a bit, we saw another one: THIS one, perched overhead on a wire. I skidded to a stop so we could snap some photos…amazed at this thing I’d never seen before.

Throughout the week, we saw 15 or 20 of these Cuckoos, and even a few of their cousins, the Smooth-billed Anis.

The Pantanal is a WILD place…

Guira Cuckoo, Transpantaneira Pantanal, Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil, 7/7/26

For a couple years, ALL my photos from our 2023 Costa Rica trip were inaccessible. Locked in an external hard drive that...
02/10/2026

For a couple years, ALL my photos from our 2023 Costa Rica trip were inaccessible. Locked in an external hard drive that just wasn’t letting me in. Sure, there were tens of thousands of OTHER pics on that drive as well, but the Costa Rica photos NEEDED to be recovered.

Well, that has recently changed. Suddenly I’m faced with around 15,000 photos that I never REALLY scrutinized…

Back then, I was more focused on shooting video, but there are a LOT of photos in here that I’ve never shared. Species that I never even knew I’d captured…you gotta realize that it’s pretty overwhelming to be in a place like this.

Candidly, I LOVE being in a position now where I can decide FROM WHERE OR WHEN I feel like posting content.

It could be from today’s sessions in San Francisco, or last month in Denver, or just before that from Brazil…Panama…New York in May…

I don’t think I’ll ever get “caught up” with my backlog of content…at least not on Instagram.

But I love being able to step back in time and share a beautiful gem like this Stripe-tailed Hummingbird…

As someone who wasn’t a photographer before all this, I’m finding it to be a highly rewarding fringe benefit…

It’s like I have a time machine.

I look at these pics and remember the unforgettable day that Steph and I spent with Marino Chacon, birding on his family’s property in the cloud forest of Savegre.

And now…finally, I can show you some of those moments.

Hope you don’t mind that I jump around a little bit…

Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Savegre Hotel, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, 6/5/23

This right here…THIS is why I look up.We were deep in the forest along Pipeline Road when we spotted a pair of White-whi...
30/09/2026

This right here…THIS is why I look up.

We were deep in the forest along Pipeline Road when we spotted a pair of White-whiskered PUFFBIRDS chilling on a branch above the path. They peered down at us with their mouths held agape…it was HOT there.

We snapped a couple of pictures before begrudgingly continuing along the road. (I NEVER want to leave places like this.)

Suddenly, I heard a single flutter of a wingbeat, felt a presence above me, and looked UP.

One of the Puffbirds had returned…with a catch, a Monkey Slug Moth larva, according to our spectacular guide .

I saw her with it for less than a second…didn’t even have time to say “whoa.” Steph and our guides were standing right next to me, but I don’t think they even saw it…barely enough time for ONE snap.

I’m convinced the bird wanted to impress me, or maybe make me jealous...

I was VERY impressed, but I wasn’t jealous. I’d already eaten, and I’m not a big Monkey Slug Moth larva guy myself.

Their evolutionary roots, shared with jacamars, reach back at least 30 million years…and there’s still SO MUCH we don’t know about them, about how they LIVE.

…these mysterious birds…who nest in chambers at the ends of underground tunnels...

There are over THIRTY species of Puffbirds out there, ranging as far north as southern Mexico…and you’re crazy if you think I don’t wanna meet ’em ALL.

Don’t YOU???

Look. Up.

White-whiskered Puffbird, Pipeline Road, Gamboa, Panama, 7/2/26

Season of the Flycatchers in SF these days…Lately I’ve been seeing a couple of Western Wood-Pewees and even a few Willow...
29/09/2026

Season of the Flycatchers in SF these days…

Lately I’ve been seeing a couple of Western Wood-Pewees and even a few Willow Flycatchers in the park—all heading south for the winter.

But mostly I’m seeing these Western Flycatchers…

Nimble and acrobatic, capable of zipping through tiny openings in the branches.

Impossibly quick. So much fun to try to photograph…

Feels like their numbers are dwindling…soon enough, they’ll all have come and gone.

Western Flycatcher, North Lake, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA, 9/20/26

28/09/2026

Saw some great inland birds and learned about a historic California mining town over the weekend with a drive from SF to Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve.

We didn’t really know what to expect, just felt like taking a drive and exploring a new place.

The history lesson—and I LOVE history—was a huge bonus.

There were five coal-mining towns in this area, starting in the late 1850s, and at its height, Somersville had about 900 people living nearby.

Even though it’s not too far from SF (~90 minutes), we rarely come out this way and we gotta change that.

I’d like to explore more of the area…

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, Antioch, CA, 9/27/26

Wandering aimlessly around the vast grounds of Pousada do Parque one afternoon…At this point, I’d been roaming for a whi...
28/09/2026

Wandering aimlessly around the vast grounds of Pousada do Parque one afternoon…

At this point, I’d been roaming for a while and was totally turned around, somewhere at the far edge of their property…

Lots of movement in the tall grasses, most of it impossible to capture with my camera.

I love that I managed a couple pics of this Seedeater. Yet at the SAME time, I know there was so much more in those fields that I did NOT see…

Some of those birds live only in that part of the world, so to even have a CHANCE of seeing them, we’d have to go back.

How and when do we go BACK somewhere—when there are still so many places to look FORWARD to?

The realist in me thinks about all the OTHER parts of the world Steph and I have yet to visit. Entire continents.

The dreamer in me? He knows I’ll be standing in this SAME spot again…waiting to discover more of those Chapada treasures…

Which will it be?

Double-collared Seedeater, Pousada do Parque, Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil, 7/6/26

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Monday 07:00 - 05:00
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Wednesday 07:00 - 17:00
Thursday 07:00 - 17:00
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Saturday 07:00 - 17:00
Sunday 07:00 - 17:00

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