Birding Trip Report: Costa Rica 2018

From the 5th to the 12th of September 2018, my Dad and I visited Costa Rica on a birdwatching trip, guided by Tropical Birding. With the help of Tropical Birding, we designed a new ‘Short Introtour’ – an abridged version of their popular Introtour – visiting the three main sites of La Selva, Savegre & the Mountains and Carara NP on the Pacific coast, missing out Monteverde from the classic 9 day itinerary. The trip surpassed all expectations and we saw an incredible total of 379 species in just 7 days in the country, including all of our main targets. Our guide Phil Chaon found us Snowcap, Resplendant Quetzal, Black-and-White Owl, American Pygymy Kingfisher, Violaceous Quail-Dove, Black-capped Pygmy Tyrant, Wrenthrush, King Vulture, Semiplumbeous Hawk, Three-toed & Two-toed Sloth, Fiery-Billed Aracari, Mangrove Hummingbird, Turquoise Cotinga, Coppery-Headed Emerald, Boat-Billed Heron, Turquoise-Browed Motmot, Collared Forest-Falcon and a whole host of other fantastic species.

The tour report as written by Phil can be found here: http://www.tropicalbirding.com/2019/06/04/trip-report-costa-rica-short-introtour-sept-2019/
Phil took the following fantastic photos during the trip, and more can be seen on the report above:

The 5 photos above were taken by Phil Chaon

Our relatively short tour took us through the full range of habitats that this fantastic country has to offer, and Phil showed us a plethora of landscapes, mammals, insects and other wildlife in addition to the birds. Whether it was standing in the middle of a busy feeding flock, watching a Two-Toed Sloth walking just metres in front of us after it had dropped out of a tree during a storm or cruising through the mangroves alongside 9ft crocodiles, there are so many experiences that I will never forget.

We chose Costa Rica as a safe yet exciting introduction to Neotropical birding, and I cannot recommend this choice strongly enough; the excitement of a first visit to the neotropics is an incomparable experience. Nothing can beat that feeling of all the new birds that await as the plane wheels touch down. My first taste of the country came unceremoniously from a Walmart car park, just minutes from the airport – and yet in this urban area, a small stand of trees produced around 20 species in a few minutes. The next morning, the grounds of Hotel Robledal produced 30 species before breakfast. It’s this immense diversity that impressed me the most early on. Later that day, we went on to see Three-toed Sloth, Lattice-tailed Trogon, White-throated Shrike-Tanager and best of all at least 7 male Snowcaps buzzing round the porterwood at El Tapir. Truly, my favourite ever birding moment.

La Selva was incredible and my favourite location of the trip – our full day at the station produced no fewer 110 species, none more spectacular than a Black-and-White Owl. Expertly picked out by Phil sat atop an exposed stump on a night walk.

A recent hurricane had felled some previously dense areas of forest - in this clearing we found Pied Puffbird

Not to mention Olivaceous Quail-Dove (extraordinarily rare for La Selva - possibly the first one seen here for many years), plenty of Trogons, King Vulture, Great Tinamou and the spectacular experience as an understorey feeding flock and canopy flock passed through simultaneously offering around 20 new species in just minutes including Spotted Antbird and a surprise Cerulean Warbler.

The suspension bridge at La Selva

110 species in a day in the UK, while easily possible, would involve essentially seeing most if not all of the region’s regularly occurring species. La Selva’s a different story – 110 species on the first day, yet a few hours the next morning produced more than 25 new species. Our long bird list the previous day allowed us to focus on some of the more special La Selva species on this morning and local guide Joel was able to find us Semiplumbeous Hawk, Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant, Long-billed Gnatwren and Fasciated Antshrike among others. A few days of hard work in La Selva alone could surely produce well in excess of 200 species.

We travelled to the mountains via the Cinchona Café, a place I’d read could offer us the chance at some hummingbird species we would miss by not visiting Monteverde. Sure enough, 11 species of hummingbird visited the feeders while we ate our traditional Costa Rican lunch – including Violet Sabrewing, Green Thorntail. Black-bellied Hummingbird and the endemic Coppery-Headed Emerald. Red Headed Barbet, Emerald Toucanet and Prong-billed Barbet while the only Ochraceous Wren and Buff-fronted Quail-Dove of the trip skulked in the background. The views here alone make a visit to this unobtrusive restaurant worthwhile.

Cinchona Café is worth a stop for the views alone

The mountains around Paraiso Quetzal offered one target more so than any other – Resplendant Quetzal, and with anticipation we joined the hotel trip to nearby farmland to wait for this special bird. After a nervy wait that looked fruitless, a male arrived and gave fantastic views. This allowed us to focus on enjoying, over the next day and a half, Fiery-Throated Hummingbirds within touching distance on the hotel feeders, Silvery-fronted Tapaculo and Wrenthrush on the hotel trails and even a Green-fronted Lancebill in the Savegre Valley.

En-route to the Pacific Coast, I asked if we could stop at Bosque del Tolomuco in order to pick up some mid-elevation species we would miss from Monteverde. This fantastic family-run reserve, with a very friendly host, gave us sightings of Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, Slate-throated Redstart, Three-striped Warbler and White-tailed Emeralds. Further down the road, Phil’s excellent insight saw us stopping in the unlikely setting of suburban San Isidro for a fantastic Turquoise Cotinga.

Carara NP on the Pacific Coast was our final area of the trip. Here, we saw such great birds as Turquoise-Browed Motmot, Baird’s Trogon, the improbably tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher eagerly watching a path-side pool, Scarlet Macaw and Royal Flycatcher. Charming Hummingbird and Blue-throated Goldentail were found in the hotel gardens and on the road below Cerro Lodge, we saw Collared Forest Falcon, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and Cinnamon Hummingbird.

On our final day, we went on a boat trip through the Rio Tárcoles mangroves. This was a fantastic experience for the crocodile sightings alone but bird sightings also included Double-striped Thick-Knee, Mangrove Vireo, the first Prothonotary Warbler on the river that winter, Boat-Billed Heron and whole host of waders and herons and best of all a Mangrove Hummingbird - taking our hummingbird list to a staggering 38 species for the week, with just Green-breasted Mango and White-necked Jacobin missed out of the regularly occurring species.

The view from Paraiso Quetzal is incredible

Our final mammal list was also impressive and included highlights such as Three-toed Sloth in Braulio Carrillo NP, Two-toed Sloth, Collared Peccary and Coati in La Selva, Howler, Spider and White-faced Capuchin Monkeys and Agouti.

Collared Peccaries are incredible tame around the station at La Selva

In a week in Costa Rica, I saw almost exactly 1 and a half times the number of species I’ve seen in 20 years of living in the UK, showing the huge potential of this tiny country! My favourite bird was certainly Snowcap, closely followed by Black-and-White Owl and Resplendant Quetzal but the prize for rarest bird has to go to Olivaceous Quail-Dove!