2012 Tour Narrative
The 2012 Costa Rica in March tour was a terrific success. From our first bird-filled morning at Tapantí National Park to a short detour on our final afternoon towards Poás Volcano for Peg-billed Finches, it was about as enjoyable as any birding tour can be. In the end we were dizzied by nearly 470 species as well as another 20 we were able to count. Crested Owl and Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl, both seen by day, were among the trip favorites, but a lucky sighting of a male Snowcap that magically appeared as we were about to depart the El Tapir flower garden was voted as top bird. Of course, the Resplendent Quetzal pair at a nest and the colorful Orange-collared Manakin and Golden-browed Chlorophonia (the last bird of the tour) got high marks as well. We also saw lots of great mammals (both species of sloths with young were fun to watch), herps (a couple of nice snakes were seen) and not a few butterflies (stunning Menelaus Morphos!). A particularly great group of participants – happy people intent on having a good time, constantly spotting birds and being helpful – made it a pleasure to lead.
Even though we didn’t start the tour in the super-diverse lowlands, the number of new birds on our morning at Tapantí was still overwhelming for some. Picking out the highlights wasn’t easy, but the pair of soaring Barred Hawks, the Black-billed Hummingbird (“wild” – no feeders!), Red-faced Spinetail at a nest, Sooty-faced Finches foraging in the open and spectacular views of Spangle-cheeked Tanager come to mind. The lovely, ethereal songs of Black-faced Solitaires continued to ring in our heads during the bus ride on to the Cerro de la Muerte area. A quick stop on our way down the valley was almost birdless until a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl started tooting back to the leader’s imitation, which had been a feeble attempt to get a rise out of an otherwise uncooperative Ochraceous Wren. Soon the owl was in our binoculars, a rufous morph just above eye-level being mobbed by Volcano Hummingbirds and a Wilson’s Warbler. What a great start to the tour!
Our time in the high elevations of the Dota region was lovely. Resplendent Quetzals were being scarce, but a nesting pair was known and we got lucky with timing, arriving just before the male came in with a fruit to relieve the female of her brooding duties. His trailing upper tail coverts sticking out of the nest cavity was a comical sight. We saw a second Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl near the staked-out nest cavity (even though we had already found our own the day before) and heard what must have been her partner a few hundred yards away. Scintillant Hummingbirds were strangely more common than the Volcano Hummers, a bird we sometimes have to be patient for. On a late afternoon trip to the Pan-American Highway, we discovered that Fiery-throated Hummingbirds really like to harass anything that sounds like an owl, and after dark tracked down a Dusky Nightjar. Other highland specialties – Black-cheeked Warbler, Black-capped Flycatcher, White-throated Mountain-Gem, the “Costa Rican” American Dipper and Large-footed Finch were seen well.
Then it was off to the Osa Peninsula – a big change in climate. On the way we made one last stop at the highest elevation where Volcano Junco, Timberline Wren and Yellow-winged Vireo were especially cooperative, and then into the heat we went. Yellow-green Vireos were singing up a storm in the middle of the day while a heat-dazed Nine-banded Armadillo trotted across a soccer field and a Streaked Flycatcher visited its nest at our Hilda Restaurant lunch stop. A stop closer to our hotel was fantastic – a female Great Curassow and a White-necked Puffbird were really good finds, and Red-breasted Blackbirds in a field along the way were a new species for the tour list.
Bosque del Rio Tigre was amazing. On our full day there, never leaving the lodge grounds and hiking no farther than a few hundred meters, we still managed to observe 133 species. The top prize went to the afternoon’s White-crested Coquette show, with one stunning male coming to feed in a cashew tree just a couple feet off the ground and even perching for digiscoping. On the way there we watched a Uniform Crake, which otherwise might have been a top bird for the tour. Other highlights were a female Turquoise Cotinga, an amazingly cooperative Striped Woodhaunter, Baird’s Trogon, Boat-billed Herons, Little Tinamous coming to the rice scattered outside the lodge kitchen and very easy Black-faced Antthrushes at the compost pile.
Our drive north to the Carara area had its highlights, such as the Yellow-billed Cotinga flyby, a stop at a pond full of Wood Storks and other water birds with Scarlet Macaws in the trees across the road, and a short detour for Southern Lapwing that also added Double-striped Thick-knees, baby Least Grebes (leastest grebes?) and rare American Coot and Lesser Scaup.
Carara itself yielded up most of its specialties, such as Royal Flycatcher (this year tending a nest right next to the trail), Orange-collared Manakins snapping up a storm on their leks (and in plain sight, apparently very used to tons of tourists passing by), a conspicuous trio of Slaty-tailed Trogons, a White-whiskered Puffbird, a few Slaty Antwrens, Plain Xenops and scores of adorable Dot-winged Antwrens. In the more open country nearby we had a very birdy dawn, stumbling into a Panama Flycatcher, some getting very lucky with an Olivaceous Piculet, and an amazing eight species of parrots including our only White-fronteds. Thanks to our well-connected driver, some local farm workers took the time to show us a pair of roosting Black-and-white Owls on private property, a bird we would have otherwise missed.
Our brief foray into the drier habitats of northwestern Costa Rica provided a bumper crop of new birds. It started with a few hummingbirds at a pink Tabebouia rosea tree, which were joined by a huge mob of other birds coming to chase off a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl. They included Spot-breasted Oriole, Rose-throated Becard, White-collared Seedeaters and the hummingbirds – including two of the hard-to-find endemic Mangrove Hummingbird (a full kilometer away from the nearest mangroves), Scaly-breasted, Ruby-throated, Cinnamon and Green-breasted Mango. All that was followed by a Lesser Ground-Cuckoo finally perching up for scope views after our having heard several off in hidden thickets. After lunch and a cooperative White-throated Magpie-Jay and Streak-backed Oriole, we birded a drying pond and the mangroves, finding a rare Sora, lots of storks, ibises and herons, a Mangrove Vireo and a roosting Pacific Screech-Owl, an amazing find.
Monteverde’s lush greenness and cool weather was a welcome respite from the lowland heat, and the beautiful forest was worth the trip up. We also saw some nice birds in the reserve, such as a huge group of Orange-bellied Trogons and a few mixed flocks with Three-striped Warblers, lots of Spotted Woodcreepers, the really good spot of a Brown-billed Scythebill buried in the dark, mossy understory, and adorable Spotted Barbtails. A female Resplendent Quetzal was at the parking lot near the busy hummingbird gallery, and the main road leading to the reserve had one of our best birds – a Barred Forest-Falcon that perched for scope views – something we would have missed if it hadn’t been for the work on the power lines that forced us to walk halfway to the reserve. The drier forests of the Santuario Ecológico were rather quiet – surprisingly void of Golden-crowned Warblers – but we still got some very good birds here, including fantastic views of Three-wattled Bellbird giving its odd wide-open-mouth display right over our heads, two Chiriqui Quail-Doves, great views of Orange-billed Nightingale-Thrush and a rare Blue-headed Vireo.
Back to the Caribbean slope for the first time since our first morning, we birded the Hanging Bridges reserve, and it was good we were the first ones there. The morning feast in an eye-level fig tree featured countless Gray-headed Chachalacas, Crested Guans, Black-mandibled Toucans and our only Crimson-collared Tanager. The forest trail held lots of treasures, beginning with a Purplish-backed Quail-Dove that crossed the trail, disappeared into the mossy undergrowth, and then came right back to us with careful playback. We were also fortunate to have come across the morning trail inspector, who took us back up the trail a hundred yards to where we had walked right past a roosting Crested Owl. As we were enjoying it, the throngs of tourists began to arrive. Later, one of them pointed out a point-blank Broad-billed Motmot to us, and another alerted us to a gorgeous Eyelash Pit Viper, so they weren’t all bad. We had a couple very good mixed understory flocks and managed views of Song and Nightingale Wrens, Tawny-faced Gnatwrens and Checker-throated and Slaty Antwrens (and only two of them are wrens). A cooperative pair of Dull-mantled Antbirds was another highlight, and we then continued on to our last destination at Sueño Azul.
Our day at La Selva was full of birds – the day’s list came to 137 species without any attempt at list-padding. Woodpeckers were especially the theme on this day, with Chestnut-colored and Rufous-winged on the entrance road, a Pale-billed excavating a nest just above eye level (we ended up noting breeding activity – nests or recently fledged young – in 34 species during the tour), and a beautiful Cinnamon as we were leaving the area. A tree full of Crested Guans (maybe nine?) and a pair of Great Curassows was a sight to behold. We also had great views of both species of sloths, each carrying a baby, a superb Rufous Motmot pair, a close Great Tinamou, Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant coming down out of the canopy, a pair of Purple-throated Fruitcrows and a gorgeous male Snowy Cotinga.
Braulio Carrillo National Park’s forest trail and even the parking lot were unusually quiet, with few canopy flocks (perhaps birds were busy nesting?), but a second trip a short distance up the trail found us an exciting understory mixed flock full of several kinds of tanagers, and all got great views of the often very shy Black-headed Nightingale-Thrush. We made two stops at the El Tapir garden where Violet-headed Hummingbird and Black-crested Coquette were easy, but only when it started to rain and we were just about to board the bus at the end of our second visit did two Snowcaps suddenly appear, an immature and an absolutely stunning adult male. We stopped noticing the rain as we enjoyed the bird, and headed back to the hotel elated.
The birdy grounds of our lodge were well worth our time. Checking the river in the morning gave us Fasciated Tiger-Heron and two distant Sunbitterns, while a late-afternoon walk to the forest resulted in a family of Canebrake Wrens (still considered a subspecies of Plain Wren by the AOU), a few heard White-throated Crakes, lots of Northern Jacanas, Purple Gallinules and Green Herons, a snag with a Lineated Woodpecker next to a Ringed Kingfisher, a pair of Pied Puffbirds and very good looks of a Blue-black Grosbeak. As it grew dark we had great views of a Vermiculated Screech-Owl and a Common Pauraque and distant but brilliant eye-shine of a silent potoo. Our short morning walk into the forest yielded good views of a male Black-throated Trogon and an unexpected Slate-colored Grosbeak.
One last bit of birding in the highlands on our way to the final night’s hotel was amazingly productive. After getting our fill of the great hummingbirding at La Paz Waterfall Gardens – a male Green Thorntail and two Magenta-throated Woodstars (not at the feeders) being the highlights – we followed up on a tip and found several Peg-billed Finches singing by the roadside only 6 kilometers out of our way. But bird activity was high all around, and we also saw both Long-tailed and Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatchers, Black-thighed Grosbeak and a gorgeous male Golden-browed Chlorophonia that just glowed in the sun – causing a chorus of oohs and aahs and earning it a spot among the top six birds of the tour.
Friendly and happy Costa Rican people, some really nice lodges, the varied habitats and elevations in such a small country, a great group of participants and our especially wonderful driver-birder-guide were non-bird highlights from the tour – but it didn’t hurt that we saw so many species, and many of them extremely well!
- Rich Hoyer, March 2012
Updated: April 2012