Yellow-headed Gecko

January 19, 2011 | Armonia Nature Preserve, Limon Province, Costa Rica

This species, Gonatodes albigularis, can usually be found on surfaces two to three meters above the ground. Not surprisingly then, I spotted this male just above eye-level on the side of a tree, shortly after dark.

Male coloration as shown here is distinctive among Costa Rican lizards. Interestingly though, coloration changes after dark. The head darkens a bit and the body lightens somewhat. Both still remain distinct from each other. What you see above then is the night color phase, or perhaps a transitional phase between the two. Males also have that white-tipped tail.

As the round pupils suggest, this is a diurnal lizard.

I didn’t measure this one, but they generally grow to around 9cm.

Reference:

[book:0970567804]

This entry was posted in Featured Photos. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Yellow-headed Gecko

  1. Pingback: Female Yellow-headed Gecko : Nature Closeups

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.