Trip Information

Date: March 16 - 30, 2009

Duration: 15 days

Leaders: Héctor Gómez de Silva

Limit: 12 people

Cost: TBA

From: San Jose, Costa Rica

Featured birds:
• Snowcap
• Resplendent Quetzal
• Scarlet Macaw
• Coppery-headed Emerald
• Spectacled Owl
• Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
• Fiery-billed Aracari
• Volcano Junco
• Black-crested Coquette
• Three-wattled Bellbird
• Black-hooded Antshrike

Trip Summary:
• Diverse birding habitats
• Easy to moderate walking, some hill climbing
• Tropical and temperate climates
• Good to very good accommodation
• 400 + bird species
• 4 to 8 participants with one leader
• 9 to 12 participants with two leaders
• Air-conditioned bus with driver

Costa Rica – the Rich Coast! Over 870 species of birds have been recorded from this small country, renowned for its relatively easy birding, good accommodation, comfortable and pleasurable infrastructure and peaceful policies. Costa Rica with neighbouring western Panama is a major centre of avian endemism, with nearly 70 species found nowhere else! This small country hosts tremendous diversity and we visit all major habitats to sample its amazing variety of birds. We spend two great days birding the lush Caribbean foothill forests around Rancho Naturalista, a very special place with an impressive list of birds and other forms of wildlife - our stay here will be one of the highlights of the trip. We bird the amazing Carara and Rio Tarcoles, and the incredibly bird-rich foothills of Braulio Carillo and lowlands of La Selva which has some of the best Caribbean lowland forest remaining in Costa Rica with many unique birds. We visit cloud forests at the Tapanti Reserve and the high elevation forests and paramo of Cerro de la Muerte in search of Resplendent Quetzal, Silver-throated Jay and many others. Finally, we explore the dry forest regions of the Pacific Northwest, which hold a whole new suite of birds. As many participants comment, each day just keeps getting better and better!

See detailed itinerary below

Download a checklist of birds from our 2007 Costa Rica tour, our 2006 Costa Rica tour (148k pdf), our 2004 Costa Rica tour or our 2002 Costa Rica tour

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Photos by Cam Gillies

Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrival in San José
The tour begins in the evening after dinner with an orientation at our hotel. Night in San José.

Days 2 to 4 - Caribbean Lowlands
We leave the Central Plateau and head northeast along the forested slopes of Volcan Poas before descending towards the Caribbean Lowlands. Along the way, we make stops by scenic canyons and magnificent waterfalls, looking for specialties such as Sooty-faced Finch, Torrent Tyrannulet and several species of hummingbirds. We spend the rest of the morning at mid-elevation forest at Virgen del Socorro, where birding can be fabulous! We will likely encounter our first mixed-species flocks here, sometimes containing over 25 species, especially tanagers. White Hawks soar over the valley, Violet-headed Hummingbirds sing endlessly from open perches - the list seems endless. After a picnic lunch, we’ll head down to lower elevations and our lodge along the Río Sarapiquí. Night at Selva Verde.

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 spend a whole day at 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, cotingas, trogons, toucans, chachalacas, maybe ant-followers at an ant swarm, lots of tanagers, as well as monkeys and who knows what else. At Selva Verde, we may be lucky enough to find Spectacled Owl or Sunbittern! Nights at Selva Verde.

Days 5 & 6 – Rancho Naturalista
We pay an early visit to Braulio Carrillo Park, where, with luck, we could pick up Yellow-eared Toucanet and Lattice-tailed Trogon. We then drive to Rancho Naturalista, a 125-acre ranch and preserve located in premontane rain forest at 300 feet. Rancho has a rich diversity of mid-elevation species and is a location for some exceptionally scarce birds.

We spend the rest of the morning viewing birds from the balcony of the lodge at leisure, and then explore the rich forests of the ranch, searching for such local species as Snowcap, Black-crested Coquette, Dull-mantled Antbird, Tawny-throated Leaftosser and Whistling Wren (an amazing singer!) and many other goodies. Nights at Rancho Naturalista.

Days 7 & 8 - Tapanti and the Cordillera de Talamanca
We leave very early in the morning and head for the Tapantí Reserve, where we spend most of the morning. The Tapantí Reserve is a great example of middle to high elevation Caribbean forest. Here we look for Black Guan, Brown-billed Scythebill, Streak-breasted Treehunter, Black-bellied Hummingbird and Green-fronted Lancebill. In the mid-afternoon we head to the cloud forest and páramo of the Cordillera de Talamanca. In the Cordillera de Talamanca, along dirt roads and forest trails passing among trees draped in epiphytes, we find a new suite of birds such as Fiery-throated Hummingbird, Ruddy Treerunner, Black-capped Flycatcher, Long-tailed and Black-and-yellow Silky-Flycatchers, Collared Redstart, Large-footed Finch, and Resplendent Quetzal. On the páramo, we look for specialties such as Volcano Junco and Timberline Wren. Nights at Savegre Lodge.

Day 9 - San Isidro
In the morning, we bird the cloud forest and páramo of the Talamancas, before heading west to our hotel in San Isidro del General. Here we will encounter yet another suite of birds, such as Smooth-billed Ani, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, White-tailed Emerald, Fiery-billed Aracari, Lesser Elaenia, Cherrie’s Tanager and Streaked Saltator. Night in San Isidro del General.

Days 10 to 12 - Cordillera de Talamanca
On our drive toward Carara we should encounter species such as Red-crowned Woodpecker and American Swallow-tailed Kite. Carara preserves a large tract of beautiful and bird-rich tropical semievergreen forest. At Carara, we look for Baird’s Trogon, Black-hooded Antshrike, Yellow-billed Cotinga, Golden-crowned Spadebill, and many more. We stay at a hotel only a few minutes from the preserve, and in the evening we travel to a spot where Scarlet Macaws and other birds fly over on their way to their roosts.

Carara 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, which will likely be displaying when we are there. We will see woodpeckers, flycatchers, antbirds, antwrens and antpittas— the possibilities seem endless! We may find American Pygmy Kingfisher by a woodland pool, or a Bare-throated Tiger-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 also visit the mangroves along the Rio Tárcoles to look for Mangrove Hummingbird, Panama Flycatcher, Mangrove Black Hawk, and shorebirds and waders such as Roseate Spoonbill. Nights at Carara.

Day 13 - Dry Forest Birding
We bird Carara during the morning and after lunch travel to Liberia, stopping at Sardinal and Chomes to look for Turquoise-browed Motmot, Lesser Ground-Cuckoo and dozens of species of wading and shore birds. Night in Liberia.

Day 14 – Palo Verde and return to San Jose
Our last morning will be spent birding in Palo Verde. Palo Verde contains one of Costa Rica’s best-preserved tropical dry forest as well as wetlands. Here we look for Double-striped Thick-knee, Elegant Trogon, Muscovy Duck, Bare-throated and Rufescent Tiger-Heron, even Jabiru is possible. After lunch, we depart for San José (long drive). Night near San José.

Day 15 - Departure
Our tour concludes in San José after breakfast.

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