During a year of birding in Costa Rica, I usually end up visiting most major parts of the country. By “major”, I mean principal ecoregions like the dry forests of the northwest, lowland Caribbean slope rainforest in the east, high elevation oak forest, and other habitats that culminate in a fantastic variety of birds. Such visits typically boost my year list to at least 600 species by June (I’m at 620 now).
Amazingly, there’s still a bunch more to make it onto my birds of 2025 but that’s because although Costa Rica is small, this nation is big on birds. It’s the perfect place to go birding and proudly state, “Keep on a birding and them species keep on a rolling in!”, or, er, something along those lines.
In any case, it would be mildly fulfilling to see a tee-shirt extolling that happy virtue. I’d sure wear it, especially while guiding a tour and especially if it showed a calling bellbird topped with a “chonete” (a type of small, Costa Rican hat). I’d also accidentally model such an expression of birding joy at a mall, or a party, function, or any venue that presents itself for possible bird promotion (which is basically anywhere). I’d wear it because that bellbird would be speaking truth for most birding sites in Costa Rica, even areas an hour’s drive from San Jose.
One of those easily accessible birding spots is also one of the places I visit the most. Seated just on the other side of the continental divide north of Alajuela, the Varablanca area has some of the closest quality habitat near the Central Valley. There’s some high elevation cloud forest, middle elevation cloud forest, and, if you drive just a bit further, the famous Cinchona Hummingbird Cafe.
This past weekend, I shared some fine birding in that area with a friend. Check out some of the highlights:
Ornate Hawk-Eagle soaring like a boss
I’ll put this highlight first. Seems like a fitting spot for it, especially with views of that hefty soaring raptor in mind. Mike spotted it and we eventually got fantastic, close looks when it soared right overhead!
This mega raptor species is regular on the Legua road but it’s still easy to miss. I was very pleased we saw this one and could marvel over its odd projecting head, getting dived on by Swallow-tailed Kites, and calling in response to my whistled imitation of the bird’s vocalizations!
Green-fronted Lancebill hanging at a clear, rushing stream
The hummingbird with the needle beak is also regular at Varablanca but, like the eagle and so many other naturally uncommon birds, you just never know if you’ll see one! Thankfully, upon checking one of the streams, we had excellent views of a lancebill perched on a typical streamside twig.
Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl comes out to toot hello
It took a couple tries but yes, the rufous morph Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl revealed itself once again! It’s pretty nice to have regular views of thus uncommon bird especially because you never know how long it will be around that site (especially with a bit of illegal deforestation going on pretty much right in its territory).
More must occur at various spots on that road but the only one I regularly hear and see is the bird we watched on Saturday.
Scaly-throated and Lineated Foliage-gleaners
Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner is sort of rare in Costa Rica and the Lineated has become much less common. It was a right birding bonus to see both in the same morning!
Heard Only Bellbird and Quetzal
At one point, we both caught the faint, odd sound of a distant bellbird, one that must be a juvenile male. I figure its the same one I’ve heard in that general area a few times. Unfortunately, it’s always been too far off road to see but it’s still good to know that one’s around.
We also had one distant heard only quetzal. Although quetzal wandering makes them unpredictable, I still typically find and see one or more on this road. I sure tried on Saturday but nope, we only heard one calling from way inside the forest. I can’t blame it, if I was a natural denizen of that area, I’d be hanging way inside the forest too.
Nice Hummingbirds at Cinchona
Eventually, we made our way to Cinchona where we shared space with the typical bunch of weekend visitors. Happily, it was good for hummingbirds and we scored all the regulars except for Green Thorntail.
The male Black-bellied made several appearances and we had a few visit from a rare White-bellied Mountain-gem too! On another note, the folks at Cinchona made the feeder set up look more natural but also cut down part of a tree and removed some vegetation. The birds should still come in but I really hope they stop cutting trees.
After Cinchona, we also got in a bit of birding in foothill forests near San Miguel and the drive to La Selva but heavy rains had finally caught up with us. Even so, we still managed to identify 133 species for the day, more than 70 of which were near Varablanca. Not a bad total, especially with rain largely eliminating key afternoon birding time the list being “padded” with very few waterbirds.
I still need to get up to that Varablanca area before dawn, see if I can catch a whiff of a dawn singing Strong-billed Woodcreeper, maybe hear a Highland Tinamou or some other uncommon bird. Hopefully that will happen soon. I don’t have much of an excuse not to; it only takes an hour to drive up to that bird happy wonderland.
Where do you want to go birding in Costa Rica? Everywhere is a good answer! Even so, just like all places, Costa Rica has its set of better sites and hotspots. To learn about them while supporting this blog, get my 900 plus page ebook, “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”. I hope to see you here!