When planning a birding trip to Costa Rica, Alaska, or anywhere else, we look at trip reports, talk to friends who have been there, study itineraries on birding tour websites, and gaze at field guides with anticipation. What are we going to see? Which birds are common, which are rare, are there any roosting owls that we can get pictures of? What awaits us on that exciting first day in country?
As much as we investigate, dream, and anticipate, the real answers to those birding hopes only come in the form of the actual experience. That said, I can tell you that if you go birding in Costa Rica, yeah, you are going to have plenty of new birds to look at, and if you bring the binos to the places with the best habitat, you will probably see a lot more birds than expected. Keep in mind that those special places may or may not be hotspots listed in eBird or elsewhere, and that the best spots are probably the toughest ones to access. Fortunately, though, we don’t need to restrict the birding experience to munching on energy bars in areas with remote, muddy trails. There are other, more accessible and comfortable places with excellent birding right on site. Even better, some of those places also have good service and excellent food.
You probably won’t see one of the best of those places on tour itineraries but that doesn’t mean that we should exclude it from planning. After seeing the following information, you might want to make room for the Finca Luna Nueva Lodge on your next birding trip to Costa Rica:
Lots of birds: The first time bird guide Juan Diego Vargas told me about Luna Nueva in 2009, he mentioned that the place was really birdy, more birdy than most other sites. I was quick to agree shortly after my first morning of birding because the avian chorus and number of birds were notably greater than many other sites. It seems that the mix of organic orchards, regenerating habitats, and primary rainforest provide food and shelter for a large number of birds, and probably more than you would expect. To give an idea of the congruence of biomass and diversity encountered at Luna Nueva, on this year’s Christmas Count, we had more than 120 species before lunch and that doesn’t even include waterbirds.
Birdy orchards
Highlights included a morning din of flocking parrots and parakeets that was incredible, trees alive with the foraging of honeycreepers, thrushes, and other species, several hummingbirds, and more just around the lodging and orchard area. Inside the rainforest, you get a different set of birds and might even see Great Curassow and other forest species. Migrants were also common and included good numbers of expected species like Summer Tanagers, Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, and Tennessee and Chestnut-sided Warblers, and less common migrants like Ovenbird, and Kentucky and Hooded Warblers. We also had several Gray Catbirds, a decidedly uncommon wintering species in much of Costa Rica.
A Yellow-bellied Flycatcher from Luna Nueva
Uncommon birds too: Along with dozens of common, expected species like Crested Guan, toucans, aracaris, Red-lored Parrots, and Black-cheeked Woodpeckers, Luna Nueva is also a good site for uncommon birds like Black-crested Coquette, Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, Bicolored Hawk, Cinnamon Woodpecker, White-fronted Nunbird, antwrens, and even Uniform Crake. Ornate Hawk-Eagle is also regular and I expect that Lovely Cotinga and Bare-necked Umbrellabird visit on rare occasions (or perhaps more than we realize) from August to February.
A Cinnamon Woodpecker from Luna Nueva.
A Puma track from the forest at Luna Nueva.
Easy access: Good, paved roads bring you to the entrance road around two hours from the airport.
Close to other sites: Although Luna Nueva is off the main birding route, it’s still close enough to other places to use it as a suitable base. La Fortuna and the Arenal area are about thirty to forty minutes away, a drive up to the wetlands of Cano Negro would take around two hours, and there are good cloud forest sites about an hour, or an hour and a half up the road.
Delicious, healthy, organic food: As if constant, good birding wasn’t enough of a reason to visit Luna Nueva, the food is simply fantastic! Ingredients are organic and include many items from the farm, there are interesting dressings on the tables, and tasty recipes are served.
Support a plan for a sustainable future: It’s hard to believe that so many birds can be found on a working tropical farm but that’s because we are too accustomed to tropical farms being monocultures, doused with poisons, and places where cattle graze pastures that used to be shaded by massive trees were macaws nested. Luna Nueva demonstrates how tropical lands can be used to raise food and host a business without destroying most of the forest, the life found therein, and highly important organic soils that can help fight climate change. It’s a good plan for a sustainable, viable future.
Enjoy the birding at Finca Luna Nueva Lodge, I know you will! Please leave a link to your eBird list in the comments.