Costa Rica Birding Tour

Our Costa Rica birding tour begins with dinner and an orientation at our hotel. Participants arriving early can enjoy the beautiful hotel grounds, possibly finding Blue-crowned Motmot and several other species on the hotel grounds. Night in San José.

After an early walk around the hotel gardens, we head west to the Pacific coast and Carara National Park. This is the boundary between the tropical dry forest to the north and the tropical wet forest to the south. Consequently, it is incredibly diverse. We arrive in time for an afternoon outing to get familiar with some of the dry forest species, including Rufous-naped Wren, Yellow-naped Parrot, Turquoise-browed Motmot, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Scrub Euphonia, and the incredible Scarlet Macaw. Night near Carara National Park.

Carara National Park preserves a large tract of beautiful and bird-rich tropical semi- evergreen forest. It is an amazing place and birding can be marvelous. The site offers a wonderful array of woodcreepers, trogons, and manakins including the stunning Orange-collared, likely displaying when we are there. We could see several species of woodpeckers, flycatchers, antbirds, antwrens and antpittas— the possibilities seem endless! We may find American Pygmy Kingfisher by a woodland pool, or a Boat-billed Heron perched in a tree along the lagoon, or a Long-billed Gnatwren busily hunting insects—or a troop of coatimundis seemingly oblivious to our presence. We look for Baird’s Trogon, Black-hooded, Giant and Barred Antshrikes, Yellow-billed Cotinga, Golden-crowned Spadebill, and many more. We enjoy a boat trip in the mangroves along the Rio Tárcoles to look for the endemic Mangrove Hummingbird, Panama and Northern Scrub Flycatchers, Mangrove Black Hawk, and shorebirds and waders such as Roseate Spoonbill. We stay at a hotel only a few minutes from the preserve. We will also stop at a spot to watch American Crocodiles loaf along the river bank. Night near Carara National Park.

We leave Carara early and drive south along the Pacific Coast. We make several stops on our way, keeping an eye out for specialties such as Snowy-bellied Hummingbird and Fiery-billed Aracari, we could encounter species such as Red-crowned Woodpecker, Pearl Kite and American Swallow-tailed Kite, whilst offshore Brown Boobies should be fishing. Leaving the coast we drive inland to San Isidro del General and onto our hotel. Here we encounter yet another suite of birds, such as Smooth-billed Ani, Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush, Lesser Elaenia, Cherrie’s Tanager and Streaked Saltator, and a major attraction of this area, Turquoise Cotinga. Night in San Isidro El General.

We start the day by visiting Los Cusingos, the name of Alexander Skutch’s farm, where we walk trails in the still relatively pristine lowland forest. There are many exciting possibilities here – Great Tinamou, Charming Hummingbird, White-crested Coquette, Bright-rumped Attila, Plain and Riverside Wrens, Golden-crowned Spadebill, Orange-collared, Blue-crowned and Red-capped Manakins, Baird’s and Black-headed Trogons, Dot-winged Antwren and Long-billed Gnatwren. Black-striped Sparrows sing their bouncing ball song, Orange-billed Sparrows forage in brush piles, Gray-necked Wood-Rails call from wet pastures, and Long-billed Starthroats visit tubular flowers. We look for ant swarms, which usually have several species in attendance – Gray-headed Tanager, woodcreepers including Cocoa, Tawny-winged and Ruddy, antbirds including Chestnut-backed and Bicoloured, even Roadside Hawk.

We spend the rest of the day searching for specialties here in the South Pacific lowlands. Flocks of swifts including White-collared, Chestnut-collared and Spot-fronted wheel across the sky, as does the solitary Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift. Olivaceous Piculets forage on thin branches, Garden Emeralds visit flowering trees, and we look for Yellow-green Vireo, Yellow-crowned and Spot-crowned Euphonias, Gray-headed Chachalaca, White-crowned Parrot, Tropical Gnatcatcher, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Greenish and Yellow-bellied Elaenias, the superb Speckled Tanager and Blue Dacnis. Night in San Isidro El General.

This morning we head off to the cloud forest and páramo of the Cordillera de Talamanca. Along the way we stop at locations for White-tailed Emerald, Fiery-throated Hummingbird and Red-headed Barbet, and visit the high paramo of Cerro de la Muerte for Volcano Junco and Timberline Wren. Then it is off our hotel in the highlands. Night in the San Gerardo de Dota area.

Here, along dirt roads and forest trails passing among trees draped in epiphytes, we find a new suite of birds such as Ruddy Treerunner, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Black-capped Flycatcher, Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher, Collared Redstart, Large-footed Finch, with luck Silvery-throated Jay. Our primary target is the magnificent Resplendent Quetzal, certainly one of the most beautiful birds in the world. Night Night in the San Gerardo de Dota area.

We depart early for the Tapantí Reserve. The Reserve is a great example of middle to high elevation Caribbean forest, and we look for Black Guan, Brown-billed Scythebill, Streak-breasted Treehunter, Black-bellied Hummingbird, Green-fronted Lancebill and Chestnut-headed Oropendola along with Golden-bellied Flycatcher, Common Bush-Tanager, Spangle-cheeked Tanager, Slate-throated Redstart and Prong-billed Barbet. After a productive morning, we head further downslope, but travel via magnificent Braulio Carrillo National Park. At a vervain hedge, we look for Violet-headed Hummingbird, and with great luck Snowcap. In the park, we walk trails looking for specialties such as Lattice-tailed Trogon, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush, Black-and-yellow Tanager, and several antbirds and antwrens. Night at La Quinta Sarapiquí Lodge.

We make the lodge our central point for birding several diverse locations in some of the richest areas in Costa Rica. During our stay, we visit La Selva, a wonderful tract of wet lowland rainforest where some 400 species of birds have been reported. We’ll see a fine array of neotropical fauna—tinamous, motmots, puffbirds, cotingas, trogons, toucans, chachalacas, maybe ant-followers at an ant swarm or a Great Curassow walking stealthily on the forest floor, lots of tanagers, as well as monkeys and who knows what else! We will also keep and eye and ear out for the endangered Great Green Macaw. Both its size and brilliant plumage make it a very impressive bird. Night at La Quinta Sarapiquí Lodge.

Our highlight today will be a morning boat tour on the river and wetlands of this area. We can expect to see an abundance of waterbirds, including Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, several herons and egrets, up to five species of Kingfishers, and the massive Jabiru stork. We will also search for several other specialties of this area, including Black-collared Hawk, Nicaraguan Grackle, and Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture. After this delightful experience, we make our way to our home for the next three days on the slopes of the Arenal Volcano. Night at Arenal Observatory Lodge.

The rainforest at the base of the volcano supports a rich assortment of birds typical of the Caribbean foothills and we should find colourful motmots, noisy raucous parrots in the upper canopy, trogons perched quietly at mid-canopy, Rufous-tailed Jacamars sallying out to catch butterflies, and spectacular Collared Aracaris and Keel-billed Toucans. Odd grunting noises come from Masked Tityras. Mammals include Three-toed Sloth and Spider Monkey. If it is clear, the view of the volcano is breathtaking!

We spend our days exploring the trails and along roads through forest and second-growth woodlands of this area, looking for Caribbean-slope specialties. If we are fortunate, we will encounter a swarm of army ants marching across the forest floor with their attendant army ant followers – antbirds, antshrikes, antwrens, woodcreepers, even hawks. White-necked Puffbirds and Long-tailed Tyrants may be perched conspicuously on exposed dead snags, manakins may be displaying at their leks on the forest floor, and mixed-species flocks could pass by with a dozen or more species in each flock - foliage-gleaners, flycatchers, dacnis, tanagers, warblers, woodpeckers and more. Nights at Arenal Observatory Lodge.

We spend a final morning enjoying the feeders and grounds of the lodge, we travel from Arenal down the Caribbean slope, across the lowlands and over the mountains to the Central Valley. There will be several key stops along the way depending on what we have seen so far. We may stop in at more hummingbird feeders for scarcer hummingbirds such as Coppery-headed Emerald, a Costa Rican endemic, and Purple-throated and White-bellied Mountain-Gems. We arrive at our charming hotel for a final dinner to celebrate a rewarding an productive journey through this beautiful country. Night near the San José airport.