travel report Costa Rica, may 14 - june 8, 2025
After numerous wildlife trips to Asia and Africa is was time to set foot on the american continent and we choose Costa Rica as destination. Costa Rica is a comparatively small country, easy to travel around and exceptionally bird rich. Picking a pre-reserved rental car (a simple 4x2 vehicle from Adobe Rental Cars, which was an excellent and economic choice) in San Jose we went to several birding places over the next 3 weeks. All lodges had been reserved months before. May is the start of the rainy season in Costa Rica and sure enough we experienced quite a few downpours. However apart from a day in Boca Tapada and another in Arenal rain did not really disturb our birding.
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Chinchona
After an early start from Alajuela, where we spent the first two nights, we headed north arriving around 8 am at our first stop at the well known restaurant Mirador de Cinchona with its hummingbird and fruit feeders. Its a nice place for breakfast or lunch and the feeders offer plenty of entertainment. At an altitude of roughly 1300m we enjoyed our first hummingbirds, a total of 8! species, not bad for a start. Most numerous were green crowned brilliants and violet sabrewings, but black bellied, coppery headed and rufous-tailed hummingbirds also showed together with crowned woodnymphs, green hermits and green thorntails. The fruit feeders attracted red-headed and prong-billed barbets, ubiquitous great kiskadees, buff-throated saltators and several tanagers (blue-grey, crimson-collared, passerini, siver-throated and red-legged honeycreepers).
green crowned brilliant
violet sabrewing
green thorntail
red-headed barbets, the female (left) looks like a different species
crimson-collared tanager
silver-throated tanager
La Selva
Our first overnight stop was La Selva Biological Station in Sarapiqui, just south of Puerto Viejo, where we spent 4 nights. La Selva is an important ecological research facility, where you meet researchers and students in the field and take your meals together in the comedor (canteen). La Selva is situated in the caribbean lowlands and borders the large Braulio Carrillo NP. It contains large open areas in the entrance area with a suspension foot bridge over the Rio Puerto Viejo as well as secondary and primary forests with numerous, well maintained trails.
In the open area around the research buildings a pair of great curassows was attracted by a fruiting tree.
A black-mandibled toucan was feasting in the same tree.
Crossing the suspension bridge in the morning we were usually greeted by turkey vultures from an exposed branch.
Gartered trogons were often seen in the same area.
At first light white-necked jacobins could usually be found perched on top of the bushes.
Passerini's tanagers were common in the open areas.
A broad-billed motmot caught a butterfly near a forest trail.
Orange-billed sparrows occasionally showed on the dark forest floor.
red-throated ant-tanager
The warm and humid environment supports numerous reptiles including colorful poison-dart frogs.
We were lucky to find an eye-lashed pit-viper. It stayed at the same spot for several days.
Mammals are generally more difficult to observe in the forest. However coatis, agutis, peccaris and sloths were all seen in the open areas. Sloths are really moving slow, this individual only showed some activity during a heavy rain downpour.
Howler, capuchin and spider monkeys were all frequently seen and heard. This spider monkey, a true forest acrobat, took a close and curious look at us near a forest trail.
Boca Tapada
Boca Tapada, likewise in the caribbean lowlands and not far from the Nicaragua border, was our next destination. A new tarmac road from Pital made the travel easy. We stayed from May 21-25 for 4 nights at the comfortable birding lodge Laguna del Lagarto. The lodge has several well stocked feeders, offering outstanding close-up views of many of the larger and more colourful Costa Rica birds. Out of several guided activities we booked the vulture restaurant, a night walk and a manakin excursion, all worthwhile tours, even though not cheap. Several lagoons in the neighborhood and some forest trails were birded independantly.
keel-billed toucan
collared aracari
montezuma oropendula
nesting red-lored parrot
brown-hooded parrot, a common sight at the feeders
Several tanager species visited the feeders, including this golden-crowned.
red-legged honeycreeper
green honeycreeper
buff-throated saltator
yellow-throated euphonia
black-headed tityra at the nest
This ornate hawk eagle choose a perch quite close to the restaurant, it was consistently mock-charged by melodious blackbirds, before it flew of.
The vulture restaurant offered unbelievably close views of numerous black vultures and the 'stars', the king vultures. In dense forest these colorful birds can locate carrion through smell, but here in Boca Tapada they have learned to follow black vultures. Our visit happened on a sunny day and one by one a total of 18! king vultures dropped from the sky.
Red-capped manakins prefer to stay in the dark, dense vegetation. During mating season earlier in the year males congregate in leks (dancing arenas) and perform the famous Michael-Jackson-style moon dance.
a green basilisk and a muscovy duck at one of the lagoons
one early morning we were lucky to encounter several neotropic otters
a night walk revealed numerous frogs including this spectacular red-eyed tree-frog
close to the ground we saw this strange sleeping feather ball. It seems no easy ID, one of the guesses I heard is a juvenile manakin!?
Arenal
Next destination was Arenal below the famous, now dormant vulcano. The Observatory Lodge was booked, so we stayed in Fortuna and traveled to the lodge for birding with day passes the next two days. Lodge grounds and forest trails offered excellent possibilities to see many of the foothill species, the Observatory lodge sits at around 500m altitude. Unfortunately we choose rainy days and our activities were restricted, nevertheless we managed to locate some target birds.
At this slightly higher altitude more hummingbirds could be seen. The rufous-tailed is common throughout Costa Rica.
bronze-tailed plumeteer
The emerald tanager is one of the less common tanagers, restricted to medium elevations.
Likewise white-collared manakins live in the foothills of the caribbean slope in Costa Rica.
Tamanduas are mostly nocturnal and not seen very often. Possibly the rain triggered this individual to look for ants in the treetops during day time.
An attractive white hawk was seen at the lodge access road.
Cheryl managed to locate this spotted antbird, our first from this fascinating neotropical bird family.
Carara
From Arenal we headed down to the pacific coast, a comparatively long drive for Costa Rica standard. It took us some time to navigate Punta Arenas before finding the right road along the ocean. We were booked to Cerro Lodge near Carara NP, where we spent the next 4 nights until May30. Cerro is a nice place to stay, even though it is not really a birding lodge. Still there are plenty of birds in the vicinity and in the restaurant a feeding place attracted a pair of scarlet macaws. Both, Carara NP and the Tarcoles river mouth with a great variety of waterbirds (and many crocodiles) are within easy reach. Carara certainly was a highlight of our trip.
white-throated magpie-jay
From Cerro it is a short drive along a dirt road to the Tarcoles River, where we boarded a small boat for a river cruise (Geovani EcoJungle Tours).
During our drive to the river we passed a bat falcon.
Scarlet macaws are uncommon in Costa Rica and restricted to just a handful of places. A pair regularly visited the feeder at the lodge and could be admired at close quarters.
Hoffmann's woodpeckers were common around the lodge, they are restricted to the pacific side of Costa Rica.
This lineated woodpecker is one of the larger and fairly widespread kinds of its family.
common black hawk seen from the boat
Besides several heron species and numerous waders and kingfishers a handful of roseate spoonbills and white ibises gave a show.
Carara NP is a unique place, where northern dry and southern wet pacific forest species meet. We birded both the headquarter trails and the muddy river trail. For the latter we were joined by the excellent bird guide Jason Cacara.
scarlet macaw eating palm fruits in the forest
turquoise-brewed motmot
Like the jacamar this white-whiskered puffbird sat motionless for a long period, thus making an easy photo model.
rufous-tailed jacamar
orange-collared manakin
After walking the river trail for some time we hit the birder's jackpot: army ants! Large columns of these small beasts travel along the forest ground and every animal -not fast enough to escape- will be eaten. Many insects desperately run or when they have wings fly in order to get away. But this is what hungry birds are looking for. Now they can easily find their insect prey and catch them. Several insect hunter are specialized following army ants and some can virtually only be seen near army ants.
The presence of grey-headed tanagers often indicates that an army ant swarm is nearby.
Bicoloured antbirds are to be seen almost exclusively near army ants.
Other followers were this large northern barred and a tawny-winged woodcreeper (below).
Also a plain xenops joined the hunt.
None of the following ant-shrikes or -pittas regularly follow army-ants and it needs good eyes and ears to find them in the dense and dark forest undergrowth.
barred antshrike
black-hooded antshrike
The streak-chested is probably the most visible of Costa Rica's notoriously difficult to spot antpittas. It permanently inflated and deflated the abdomen plumage, a usual behaviour of this species with unknown reasons.
chestnut-backed antbird
Upper Talamanca Mountains
From Carara's steaming jungles we drove up to the Talamanca Mountains birding the cloud forests at San Gerardo de Dota and km70, where we stayed at Mirador del Quetzales at almost 3000m altitude for the next four nights from May 30 to June 3. Km70 proved to be less busy than San Gerardo de Dota and was a good place to look for resplendant quetzals and many of the high altitude specialities. However the San Gerardo valley with some altitude gradient produced a greater variety of species. There we certainly enjoyed Miriam's Quetzales, a nice cafe with superb hummingbird and fruit feeders.
magnificent hummingbirds
fiery-throated hummingbird
green violetear
a tiny vulcano hummingbird
white-throated mountain-gem
resplendent quetzal, star bird in the mountains
emerald toucanet
acorn woodpecker
spangle-cheeked tanager
flame-coloured tanager
black-thighed grosbeak
golden-browed chlorophonia
black guan
El Copal
El Copal is a rather remote small lodge sitting at around 1000 m altitude on the caribbean slope. Access is tricky and we missed the right road multiple times. You need to go to Paraiso and make it through Tucurrique to the small town of Pejibaye. From there go to Humo and do two left turns crossing rivers, the second immediately after the first and reach El Copal after another 5 or so kms. You need to climb a steep, small road to the left, which will then take you to the lodge. The lodge grounds are an excellent place to look for some of the more unusual hummingbirds and an impressive number of tanagers. Several forest trails are well worth birding. Here we stayed our last 4 nights in Costa Rica before returning to Alajuela and flying out.
The unique snowcap can be found at just a handful of places.
snowy-bellied hummingbird, an unusual find
around the lodge an impressive number of tanagers and related birds could be seen:
violet headed hummingbird
passerini's tanager
bay-headed tanager
scarlet-thighed dacnis
tawny-crested tanager
spangle-cheeked tanager
This tropical parula found a tasty caterpillar.
tawny-capped euphonia
a grey-headed kite, perched at a clearing in the forest
At a small river crossing on one of the forest trails we used a little playback and easily attracted this dull-mantled antbird.
a surprised peccari early morning on a forest trail
One early morning we were very lucky to encounter a tayra family close to the lodge. It was a mother with two almost grown up cups. The mother stayed on the ground in thick vegetation, but the cups could be nicely observed for more than one hour.
