The tour stayed at Orquideas Hotel and Resort, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Trapp Family Lodge, Punta Leona Hotel Resort, Bosque del Rio Tigre, and Golfo Dulce Lodge. Other places visited while staying at and traveling between these lodges/hotels included Arenal National Park, Lake Arenal, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, the Hummingbird Gallery, Finca Ecologica, Carara National Park, Rio Tarcoles Bridge and the Orotina town park, Rincon Road, La Gamba Road, Las Esquinas Lodge and Biological Station.

(A composite list of birds and other animals follows this report)

I arrived in Costa Rica January 18, 2007 two days ahead of the tour group. After clearing immigration and customs, I grabbed a taxi outside the Juan Santa Maria International Airport and made the 10-minute ride to Hotel La Orquideas in Alejuela west of the airport.

After checking in and putting my stuff in the room, I toured around the hotel grounds and walked one of the trails down to the creek. Birds encountered on the grounds and the trail included Blue-crowned Motmot, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Clay-colored Thrush, Blue-gray Tanager, Hoffman’s Woodpecker, Inca Dove, White-tipped Dove, Great Kiskadee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Garden Emerald, Scaly-breasted Hummingbird, Tropical Kingbird, Melodious Blackbird, Rufous-napped Wren, and Grayish Saltator.

The next morning before breakfast, I again walked the grounds and trails. Crimson-fronted Parakeet, Steely-vented, Brown Jay, Plain and House Wrens. Neo-tropical migrants included Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warbler, Summer Tanager, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. A Grey-crowned Yellowthroat was singing and seen well in scrubby area along the trail to the creek. No less than 6 Blue-crowned Motmots were congregated near the upper rooms. While standing in the parking lot talking with Kevin Easely, we observed a Plain-capped Starthroat going to a nest and had nice looks at both light and dark morph Short-tailed Hawk soaring overhead.

After breakfast, my Tico friend Pablo "Chespi" Elizondo picked me up and we headed towards Atenas about 40 minutes west of the hotel. Here we picked up one of the people who would later join us on the Osa Peninsula Extension part of the tour. We proceeded on to Orotina Town Park and after a little searching, we found the resident Black and White Owls along with nice looks at a Cinnamon Hummingbird working the hanging mosses there. Other birds seen in and around the park included White-winged Dove, Social Flycatcher, the ubiquitous Great-tailed Grackle, and Grayish Saltator.

The next morning before breakfast, I again walked the grounds and trails. Most of the same birds seen on the first two days were again observed. In addition, this morning I added to the trip list.

At 1:00 PM I headed to the airport to pickup the group arriving from Virginia and New Jersey. After meeting everyone and loading their stuff into our van, we headed to La Orquideas Inn. Here we got the group checked in and then birded the grounds for an hour or so before sunset.

After a wonderful dinner in a private open-air dinning room overlooking the Central Valley and San Jose, we checked the owl day-roost again but the bird had moved on for a night of hunting. We also spent time looking for the resident Tropical Screech-owls but they did not show. Tingling with anticipation of the birds and scenery that awaited us in the days to come, we turned in for the night.

Breakfast was great and included a troop of Rufous-naped Wrens playing around on the buffet. After breakfast, we packed up, boarded a small, but comfortable, van and headed to our next destination The Arenal Observatory Lodge. The lodge, located about 2.5 hours northwest of San Jose, is situated right next to the Arenal Volcano. Along the way we added Ruddy Ground-Doves, Keel-billed Toucan, Northern Jacana, and Social Flycatcher to our list and had nice looks at Mantled Howler Monkeys.

On our way to the lodge, we stopped at a field near the town of La Fortuna, which was known to host two rarities Tropical Mockingbird and Southern Lapwing. It took us a few minutes to find the lapwing, but the mockingbird was nowhere to be seen. Another group of birders located a second lapwing, but still no mocker. As a consolation prize, our views of the Arenal Volcano from this spot were astounding! We also saw Eastern Meadowlark, Variable Seedeater, Yellow-faced Grassquit, and Rufous-collared Sparrow here and Melodious Blackbirds called nearby.

We loaded back into the van and continued our journey to the lodge... and what a lodge it was! The lodge has nice rooms, balcony views of the volcano, good food, lots of trails, and a huge deck with a view of several fruit feeders. We dropped our bags off and headed to the feeders. Watermelon, banana, and cantaloupe attracted Bananaquit, Montezuma Oropendulas, Yellow-throated and Olive-backed Euphonias, and a host of different tanagers including Passerini’s, Palm, Hepatic, Emerald, Blue-gray, and Silver-throated, along with Green, Red-legged and Shinning Honeycreepers. We also saw several Coatis, searching for scraps under the feeders.

After lunch we hit the trails around the lodge. This lodge was historically used as a monitoring station for the volcano, so there are many buildings and monitoring stations around. Our first find was a fruiting tree that attracted White-throated and Clay-colored Thrushes along with lots of tanagers including Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Palm, Golden-hooded, Emerald, Crimson-collared, and Blue-gray. After getting our fill of tanagers, we continued towards to the Waterfall Trail. On the way we encountered White-necked Jacobin and Violet-headed Hummingbird working the vervain. Nearby we also spotted Tropical Pewee, Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Wilson’s Warbler, Nightingale Wren, and Tropical Parula.

The Waterfall Trail was our first exposure to rainforest birding. Birding in the rainforest is tough. The foliage is incredibly dense and many birds are only seen passing by quickly in backlit feeding flocks high near the canopy. It's not for the faint of heart. On the trail we were greeted with our first view of one of the antbirds - a single Ocellated Antbird - a great sighting. We also saw a female Slaty-tailed Trogon and Black-headed Nightingale-thrush in the path ahead of us. A steep decent to the waterfall lead to a view of our prized find - a Green-fronted Lancebill that loved to sit on a rock in the middle of a river. He would fly up, swirl around a bit, and then come back to the same rock over and over again!

It was getting late so we headed back towards the hotel listening to White-breasted Woodwren and Stripe-breasted Wren along the way. We watched the sunset over Lake Arenal and then enjoyed a nice candlelight dinner. The sounds of the night were a calling Common Pauraque and many katydids.

After a great day on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge, we woke up bright and early for some AM birding. Unfortunately, the guys whose job it is to stock the fruit feeders weren’t coming to work until 7:30, so we had very inactive feeders. We birded the grounds a bit and explored a new trail that was known to host a Thicket (Fulvous-bellied) Antpitta. Antpittas are funny little birds with stubby tails, long legs, and an upright posture. They look like some kind of wind-up toy. Lucky for us, the antpitta was singing away. With some whistled impersonations, we were able to get him to come check us out. These little guys are the definition of the word "skulk". Luckily, everyone got a great look at this often heard but seldom seen skulker. We also had nice looks at Stripe-throated Hermit feeding beside the trail as well as Lesser Greenlet and Cinnamon Becard.

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast with great fresh fruit, we headed to the rainforest canopy bridges about 30 minutes from the lodge. The area we went to has a series of steel suspension bridges with the highest being 100 meters long and 100 meters off the forest floor.

The weather was a bit rainy and the birding started out a bit quietly. Lucky for us, a gorgeous blue morpho butterfly flew by and caused us to pause and admire it. I happened to look to my right and spotted a perched White-fronted Nunbird, a very difficult species to find. Soon, another nunbird that was beating the heck out of a giant, creepy, centipede-looking thing joined it. The theory is that they beat their prey against a branch in order for the prey to excrete any toxins before the bird ingests them.

We continued through the trails and across many of the bridges until we reached the top. There was a crippling view of the rainforest with a waterfall down below. Birds were few and far between with only some Tennessee Warblers and some random flycatchers. A local guide tipped us off to a perched Broad-billed Motmot and we spotted a pair of Purple-crowned Fairies. On the walk back, we encountered a couple of nice feeding flocks, which produced White-collared Manakin, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, White-whiskered Puffbird, Dusky Antbird, and others. Back at the parking lot, we saw a Swainson’s Hawk soaring overhead.

On the way back to the lodge, a few extra dollars convinced our driver to take us back to La Fortuna for another shot at the mockingbird. We had barely gotten out of the van when the Tropical Mockingbird was spotted teed up in the orange tree right where it was supposed to be! We didn’t stay here that long but there were no signs of the Southern Lapwings. This is what makes birding so much fun lapwing one day mockingbird the next!

Other birds seen around the lodge grounds and on the entrance road included Spotted Sandpiper, Dusky-capped Flycatcher,Crested Guan, Collared Aracari, Violaceous Trogon, Keel-billed Toucan, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Black Phoebe, Masked Tityra, Lesser Greenlet, Black-throated and Band-backed Wrens, Chestnut-sided, Wilson’s, and Kentucky Warblers, Golden-hooded Tanagers, Black-headed and Buff-throated Saltator, Black-cowled Oriole, Flammulated Attila (Attila flammulatus): Formerly included in Bright-rumped Attila (A. spadiceus), trans-Andean birds (ranging from Mexico into north-western Ecuador) have now been split off as Flammulated Attila based on differences in voice and plumage, Buff-rumped Warbler, Rufous-winged Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Smokey-brown Woodpecker, Black-stripped Sparrow, Streak-headed and Spotted Woodcreeper, and Southern Rough-winged Swallow.

After breakfast, our driver arrived and we headed out for the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Trapp Family Lodge. On our way down to the main road we came upon a nice flock of and our first White-throated Magpie-Jays. These birds are so spectacular, with their beautiful sky blue dorsal side and pure white under parts, large size, and curly-q topknots.

There are two ways you can get to Monteverde from Arenal. You can drive 6 hours on extremely bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads or you can take a water taxi across Lake Arenal and then drive 2 hours on bumpy, narrow, mountainous roads. The choice was obvious. The water taxi ride was pleasant and included birds like Great and Snowy Egrets, Great Blue and Little Blue Herons, Mangrove Swallow, Amazon and Ringed Kingfishers, Anhinga, and Neotropical Cormorant.

The drop-off point for the taxi proved to be surprisingly birdy. After trekking up a staircase made of sandbags, we were treated to an Orange-fronted Parakeet less than 10 feet away. Ruddy Ground-doves were everywhere. A couple of Slaty Spinetails called like crazy from the brush on the side of the road, but would not come out to see us. At one point, they must have been a foot away from our feet but we couldn't see them!
The ride was indeed very bumpy but we had a beautiful sunny day and saw some nice birds as well as lots of beautiful scenery.

The Trapp Family Lodge is a very nice place. Everything is made of decorative wood, the beds are comfortable, and each room has a patio door or balcony view of the yard. The restaurant is very nice with a good choice of food, good (at times leisurely) service, and great fresh juice.

After a late lunch we headed to Monteverde Reserve. Luckily, the lodge is only an 8/10 mile (slightly uphill) walk to the reserve. The weather became interesting. It's not called a cloud forest for nothing. A constant mist sprayed against our raingear. We were essentially standing in a cloud.

After taking the leisurely fifteen-minute walk up the road to the reserve and spotting Brown Jays, Slate-throated Redstart, Mountain Robin, Mountain Elaenia, Common Brush-finch, and Green Violet-ear lekking, we arrived at the Hummingbird Gallery. This little building and garden adjacent to the reserve entrance is amazing! The feeders were buzzing with hummingbirds including the large and spectacular Violet Sabrewing, Green Violet-Ear, Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, Magnificent Hummingbird, Coppery-headed Emerald (our first Costa Rican endemic), Green Hermit, Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, Green-crowned Brilliant, and Magenta-throated Woodstar. What a display of color! We spent an hour or so at the feeders taking photos and identifying birds before heading back down the road to the lodge. On the way back, we found Blue-crowned Motmot, White-napped Brush-finch, and Gray-crowned Yellowthroat.

This morning we arose early, ate, and headed up the road to the Monteverde Reserve. We found most of the same birds along the road as before but got an awesome bird about halfway to the reserve. A beautiful Black Guan came out in the trees beside the road for great views!

This is an incredible place that can only be described as magical. The huge trees dripping with ferns, orchids, bromeliads, mosses and vines were incredible. We headed into the forest to see what wonders it had to offer. Almost immediately we had the first of several Slate-throated Redstarts only a few feet from us just sitting on a branch at chest height! We got two great birds, a Blue-throated (Emerald) Toucanet and several male and female Resplendent Quetzals! Unfortunately we never got a really great look at any of these since they were partially hidden behind leaves high in the canopy of an avocado tree.

Birds came slowly and usually in mixed feeding flocks. Three-striped Warblers, Orange-bellied Trogon, Prong-billed Barbet, Yellowish Flycatcher, Black-faced Solitaire, Black and White Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Collared Redstart (Amigo de Hombre or Friend of Man), Silvery-fronted Tapaculo, Black and Yellow Silky-flycatcher, Buffy Tuftedcheek, Spotted Barbtail, Ochraceous Wren, Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager, Tufted Flycatcher, and Gray-breasted Woodwren. One of the special treats of the morning was watching a Gray-throated Leaftosser persistently singing and displaying from a very exposed perch just off of the trail. We also heard Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush and several of us were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a Highland Tinamou as it crossed the trail ahead of us.

We exited the reserve in the early afternoon and headed back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch, we hiked back up to the hummingbird gallery for some more leisurely looks and photo opportunities before enjoying another nice dinner. On the way back to the lodge we were fortunate enough to see a Pre-hensile tailed (Mexican) Porcupine huddled up in the fork of a tree near the road.

The next morning we decided to delay our departure for Punta Leona so that we could spend some time at the nearby Finca Ecologica noted for its resident population of Chiriqui Quail-doves. At the reserve, we could not find the quail-doves but we did have some nice birds including White-fronted Parrot, Golden-crowned Warbler, White-throated Robin, Blue-throated (Emerald) Toucanet, Black-faced Wood-quail, and Blue-crowned (Golden-browed) Chlorophonia.

Back at Trapp Family Lodge, we loaded our gear into the van and headed southwest towards the pacific coast. Along the way down the mountains, we added a few new species including a pair of Muscovy Ducks standing along a creek, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and a Gray Hawk perched nicely in a dead tree. After another long bumpy ride we approached the Rio Tarcoles. As we were crossing the bridge here, our driver Vern yelled out "Yellow-billed Cotinga!!" We all strained to see this rare and beautiful bird as it flew lazily across the river. Seeing where it landed in the treetops, we stopped on the far side of the bridge and got great scope views of this bonus bird! The river below the bridge is famous for its huge American Crocodiles. Along with many other tourists we walked out onto the bridge and observed the crocodiles below us in the semi dry riverbed. There were 25 plus crocodiles, ranging in size from 3 feet to over 12 feet..quite spectacular! Also from the bridge several birds were seen including several species of heron and egret, Yellow-headed Caracara, Gray-breasted Martin, and our first looks at Scarlet Macaw.

We continued on to Punta Leona, a short ride down the road observing Brown Pelican and Magnificent Frigatebird where the road neared the coast. Just before turning off the main road, we stopped briefly to get great scope views of a pair of nesting Double-striped Thick-knees in a field beside the highway.

As we entered the gates to the resort, we could tell this wasn’t the usual lodge or hotel. The paved road meandering up through the forest came out onto a large resort on the beach, which you wouldn’t think would be good for birds. But this place was very well landscaped and was surrounded by hundreds of acres of primary pacific rainforest.

Birds were everywhere so we could hardly wait to start birding this place. However, first we needed to replenish our energy. After checking in we went immediately to the open-air dinning hall for some much needed nourishment and libations. Three-wattled Bellbirds were heard in the surrounding forest while we ate but never seen.

Once we finished our meal, we commenced birding the grounds of this fabulous resort. We quickly found Cocoa Woodcreeper, Orange-chinned Parakeets, Streaked Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Black (Chestnut)-mandible Toucan, Groove-billed Ani, Rose-throated Becard, Masked Tityra, Melodious Blackbird, Royal Tern, and Laughing Gull.

By this time it was getting dark so we returned to our rooms to freshen up for dinner. As we neared the rooms, we heard a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl calling and so I whistled the bird in. This great little owl flew right in to a tree over our heads and then retreated a little to give us great scope views. After a fabulous buffet meal we tried briefly for Pacific Screech-owl (which we did not hear or see) before adjourned to the rooms for a good night’s sleep.

Before breakfast we birded the entrance road leading out from the resort. Many of the same birds were seen again this morning but a few new ones were seen including Black-hooded Antshrike, Baird’s Trogon, Black-throated Trogon, Red-billed Pigeon, and Inca Dove.

At about 7:00 we went down to have a nice breakfast and were entertained by a troop of White-faced Capuchins in the trees slowly making their way to the dining area and then coming to the railings beside our table to grab bananas we placed there for them. Several Variegated Squirrels and Northern Raccoons were seen during our stay here.

Meeting our driver, we took off for the short trip to Carara National Park. All morning was spent at this wonderful site of lush forest interspersed with grassy openings and river marshes. After being dropped off we hiked on the main road leading to the river. We immediately started seeing birds including Slate-headed Tody-flycatcher, Northern Waterthrush, Riverside Wren, Long-billed Gnatwren, Chestnut-backed Antbird, Black-bellied Wrens, Plain Xenops, Tropical Gnatcatcher, nice looks at a White-necked Puffbird perched above the path, and Blue-black Grosbeak. A Collard Forest-falcon called and then shot across the path in front of us providing a nice look for the sole observer Tina Trice! We also heard Stub-tailed Spadebill but despite our best efforts could not sneak a peek at this cutie.

At the river we found five Boat-billed Herons in a tree very close to us and a Bare-throated Tiger-heron was sneaking through the tall marshgrass. Other birds seen at the Oxbow Lake were White Ibis, Great Egret, Yellow-crowned Night-heron, and Northern Jacana. A large troop of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys was also seen on the walk.

As we walked back towards the parking area, we spotted a White-whiskered Puffbird sitting motionless very near the path! A very obliging Black-headed Trogon also perched just above our heads.

After breakfast, we headed for the beach for a few hours of relaxation and fun. At the beach, Playa Blanco, several members of the group decided to rent kayaks and spent an hour or so out on the water. The rest of us swam in the beautiful clear waters of the Pacific and walked the beach. We of course couldn’t help but spotting birds. Near the beach we found Magnificent Frigatebirds, Brown Pelicans, Ruddy Turnstones, Willet, Whimbrel, Spotted Sandpiper, and Royal Tern. We also had Yellow-crowned Euphonia and Black-mandibled Toucan nearby.

We returned to our rooms and freshened up before enjoying a nice lunch. In the late afternoon, we headed out to the boat dock on the Rio Tarcoles for the “Mangrove Birding Tour” 3-hour boat ride with the infamous Luis Campos.. This is a great way to explore the mangroves and estuary and is the best tour for birding. Luis has excellent spotting skills, knows the English names of the birds and where to find them. His boat is smaller than the large tourist boats allowing him to enter the narrow canals looking for the rare and local Rufous-necked Wood-Rail, the endemic Mangrove Hummingbird, and the tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher among many others. Along the way to the dock, we made a few stops in the dry scrub habitat along the road. Here we found Stripe-headed Sparrow, Plain-breasted Ground-dove, Blue Grosbeak, Blue-black Grassquit, Scrub Greenlet, and White-collared Seedeater.

At the dock near the Tarcole Lodge, we found a number of shorebirds feeding in the mud exposed by the low tide. Black-necked Stilt, Least, Semi-palmated, and Western Sandpiper, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, and Semi-palmated Plover were all seen well.

Once aboard the boat, we headed out on the Rio Tarcoles where we easily found Purple Gallinule, Boat-billed Heron, Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-heron, Snowy, Cattle and Great Egrets,Yellow-headed and Northern Crested Caracara, Mangrove Black-hawk, Roseate Spoonbill, White Ibis, Little Blue, Great Blue, and Tri-colored Heron, Neotropical Cormorant, Mangrove Swallow, Anhinga, Amazon Kingfisher, Green Kingfisher, Black-bellied Whistling-duck, and Osprey. I briefly spotted a Wilson’s Plover on the flats and Black-bellied Plovers were also seen. In the mangroves, we found Panama Flycatcher, Mangrove Vireo, "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler, the adorable American Pygmy-kingfisher, and the much sought-after endemic Mangrove Hummingbird. We also spotted many Prothonotary Warblers. We had nice looks at Scarlet Macaws including a bird sitting on the nest, Plumbeous Kite, and Blue Ground-dove.

Today around the grounds of the resort we spotted several Fiery-billed Aracaris, Squirrel Cuckoo, Turquois-browed Motmot, Lineated Woodpecker, Little Tinamou, and heard Pale-billed Woodpecker drumming near our rooms.

At 8:00 am we met our driver and headed out for our journey back to San Jose and the Juan SantaMaria International Airport. On our way we stopped in the town of Orotina, which is world famous for its resident pair of Black-and-white Owls that roost in a small park in the center of town. It took a few minutes but we found them in the open about 15 feet up. We also had saw the resident Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth sleeping in one of the trees. The previously reported Cinnamon Hummingbird was seen again briefly by several members of the group and White-winged Dove, Social Flycatcher, the ubiquitous Great-tailed Grackle, Blue-gray Tanager, and Grayish Saltator were also seen.

Non-avian highlights included Green Iguana, Strawberry Poison-Dart Frog, Central American Agouti, Golden Orb Spider and Collared Peccary.Varigated squirrel, red mantled howler monkey, coati, alfaro pygmy squirrel, mexican porcupine, white-faced chapuchin monkey, northern raccoon, black iguana (ctenosaur), gray fox, proboscis bat, whitelined bat, two and three toed sloths, postman butterfly, headlight/taillight beetle, bottlenose dolphin, flying fish, red-tailed squirrel, long tailed skipper.

©Copyright 2007 Tico Tours, LLC
Prepared by Michael R. Boatwright
All rights reserved.