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Fantastic Bird Photography in Costa Rica- 5 Easy Sites

Bird photography in Costa Rica is pretty darn exciting. There are literally hundreds of exotic, tropical bird species, dozens of glittering hummingbirds, beautiful tanagers, trogons, and more, always more.

Resplendent Quetzals too!

While it’s true that mature forests harbor the highest species totals, they aren’t the best places for bird photography. Yes, trails in rainforest can turn up rare and little photographed bird species but you’ll need the right equipment, time, and stamina.

I’m all for experiencing those forest denizens, I actually prefer that birding method. However, to capture images of birds to my heart’s content, I would go to places with better lighting, comfort, and easier bird access. Happily, in Costa Rica, many such sites exist, too many to mention. A handful of top contenders are Laguna del Lagarto, Maquenque Lodge, Rancho Naturalista, Hotel Quelitales, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Hotel de Campo and Cano Negro, and Quinta Galeon.

There’s lots more places I could mention but in this blog post, I’m going to focus on 5 of the easiest sites for fantastic bird photography. These are very accessible sites within easy striking distance of San Jose and the Central Valley, can be visited on your own, and have an awesome array of feathered subjects.

The Cinchona Hummingbird Cafe

This gem of a site is one of Costa Rica’s classic birding hotspots. If there’s any downside, it’s that the place has become very popular. However, even then, if you don’t mind loud talking and sharing space with a bunch of people, there’ll still be birds.

Situated around an hour and a half from San Jose on route 126, this spot is easy to access and is a wonderful place to enjoy a coffee and meal while photographing a fine selection of middle elevation birds.

The papaya feeders often have Northern American Toucanet, Prong-billed Barbet, and even the fancy Red-headed Barbet!

Although bird species vary, typical subjects also include Silver-throated Tanager, Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Crimson-collared Tanager, and other small birds. On the hummingbird front, this site also typically turns up 7 or 8 species including the extravagant Violet Sabrewing and the endemic Coppery-headed Emerald.

This cafe has gone by several names, the most recent might be the Cafe Colibri. It’s located on the eastern side of the road, around ten minutes north of the Peace Waterfall, and is the only spot on route 126 with a donkey corral on the other side of the road. They may charge for photos but as of September, 2024, folks who use the restaurant don’t have to pay anything extra. Even so, I encourage you to give these bird and birder friendly people a nice donation.

But wait, there’s more! The drive to Cinchona also hosts chances at high elevation hummingbirds and even quetzal. However, to see those, it would be much easier with a guide.

Nectar and Pollen

This is the best site for foothill rainforest bird photography near San Jose. It’s also one of the better sites in Costa Rica! Only an hour’s drive or less from San Jose, Nectar and Pollen has an excellent set up for tanagers, hummingbirds, and other rainforest species.

Cinnamon Woodpecker included!

They do have a trail but for bird photography, it’s better and easier to sit and enjoy a coffee while getting captures of Rufous Motmot, Collared Aracari, oropendolas, and much more.

Hummingbirds also visit the garden and can include Snowcap and Violet-headed Hummingbird among other species. On occasion, White-tipped Sicklebill also makes an appearance.

There’s also a pasture area next to rainforest that can be very good for raptors, the photogenic Long-tailed Tyrant, and various other species. In the wet season, you might even get flybys of Great Green Macaw.

Nectar and Pollen is a small private place situated on Route 32 just north of the Rainforest Aerial Tram. To visit, you must contact Miguel Delgado in advance. He can also update you on entrance fees.

The Tarcoles Area

Hoping for pictures of Scarlet Macaw? Tarcoles is the closest, easiest spot near San Jose. This small fishing village is around an hour and 20 minutes or so drive from San Jose, and offers access to easy roadside photography.

The macaws often feed in trees near the beach and even right in town. Black-headed Trogons, and various other lowland species are also accessible, and boat tours that focus on bird photography are also available.

On the way to Tarcoles, nearby sites such as the Ceiba Orotina area and the Guacima Road can also be good for Double-striped Thick-knee, White-throated Magpie-Jay, and many other species. There’s also the Cerro Lodge road along with Cerro Lodge and the Tarcoles Birding Lodge. Both of these sites can have good photo opps on their grounds. For access, you probably need to pay for a meal, both are worth contacting first.

I should also mention that although you can bird this area on your own, it will be much easer and productive with a guide.

San Luis Canopy

This fun spot is also around an hour and a half from San Jose and is located on the main road from San Ramon to La Fortuna. Officially known as “Parque Aventura San Luis“, this site mostly does exciting and popular zip line tours through beautiful middle elevation rainforest.

There are also several nice tourist shops there and a good local restaurant to dine at after a fine morning of bird photography. The draw for this special place is their tanager feeder set up. Banana and papaya pieces on and near natural perches bring in Emerald, Bay-headed, and other tanager species, often, too close for a long lens!

Even uncommon Blue-and-gold and Black-and-yellow Tanagers can show along with Black-cheeked Woodpeckers and other common birds. San Luis can also have rare birds on their trails, even Bare-necked Umbrellabird, and Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo!

Ask if these birds have been seen. If so, for $10, one of their guides might bring you to them! The entrance fee to explore the trails and hanging bridges on your own might be around $30. It costs $10 to just stick with the tanagers.

The Nochebuena on Irazu Volcano

This spot is a bit further from San Jose but it’s still close enough for easy bird photography. Reaching the Nochebuena area takes around an hour and 40 minutes driving up the main road to Irazu.

This site requires an extra early start to get past San Jose by 6, otherwise, you’ll get stuck in heavy, slow traffic. The Nochebuena is a small, cozy cafe with trails ($6) through high elevation habitats. At 9,000 to 10,000 feet, the trails can be tough on the lungs but that’s where you usually need to go to see the mega Maroon-chested Ground-Dove and Wrenthrush.

If you would rather not go hiking, fortunately, there’s good photo opps right at the cafe and just down the road. Hummingbird feeders attract Talamanca, Volcano, and Fiery-throated Hummingbirds along with Lesser Violetears while the riparian zone and adjacent forest next to it often has quetzal and various other high elevation birds.

Fiery-throated-Hummingbird

As a bonus, a short drive up to the paramo brings you to Volcano Juncos, Timberline Wrens, possible Peg-billed Finch, and other nice birdies.

Going birding in Costa Rica? Have an extra day for bird photography, like maybe at the start or end of a tour? You can’t go wrong with the sites mentioned above. To learn more about these and other birding sites in Costa Rica, prepare for your birding trip, and support this blog, get “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”. I hope to see you here!

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Costa Rica Birding Highlights- Nectar and Pollen

White Hawk Costa Rica
Find more birds in Costa Rica like this White Hawk.

Where to go birding in Costa Rica? Where to see birds in Costa Rica? These are pertinent question for any birder, and, for some, all important concerns. The right answers vary; they wholly depend on what you would like to see. Walk outside and look around, as the Urban Birder says, “Look Up!”, and you will see birds, even in the concrete byways of San Jose. However, if you carry out that same action in and near primary rainforest, you could see ten times as many birds.

If “quetzal” is in your personal birding equation, any number of forested sites in the highlands will work. The same goes for many of Costa Rica’s near endemics including birds like Yellow-thighed Brushfinch, an arboreal towhee with legs that sport yellow pom-poms.

Yellow-thighed Brushfinch

As you can see, I wasn’t kidding!

Looking for tanagers? Well of course you are! The best sites tend to be in quality foothill and middle elevation rainforest. How about hummingbirds? Yes please and with sabrewings on top! You’ll find those and much more at various middle elevation sites.

Violet-Sabrewing-male

Nothing like seeing a massive purple hummingbird to get the birding blood flowing!

Now if you would like to see lots of cool, choice tropical birds, all at once, there are good birding sites in Costa Rica for that fast and furious happiness too. One such place is Nectar and Pollen, these are some recent highlights and birds to look for at this easily accessible, gem of a spot:

Raptors

Some of best places to see raptors in Costa Rica are sites with good views of the canopy and sky over extensive primary rainforest. Walk into the pasture at Nectar and Pollen and you’ll see what I mean, especially during a sunny morning, right around 9:00 a.m. This is high time for raptors to take to the skies and if you hit a good day at Nectar and Pollen you could see several of these species:

King Vulture

Hawk-eagles, even the rare Black-and-White

White Hawk

Barred Hawk

Great Black Hawk

Gray Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Short-tailed Hawk

Double-toothed Kite

Rarely, you could also see Hook-billed and Gray-headed Kites

Scan the canopy at an early hour and you might also get lucky with finding a perched Tiny Hawk, Bicolored Hawk, Laughing Falcon, or other raptor species.

White-tipped Sicklebill and Other Hummingbirds

Plantings can attract sicklebill, hermits, and several other hummingbirds. A recent visit turned up:

White-necked Jacobin

A male White-necked Jacobin.

Blue-chested Hummingbird

Violet-headed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird

Crowned Woodnymph, and

Green-breasted Mango.

On other visits, I have also had Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer, Green Thorntail, Black-crested Coquette, Brown Violetear, Long-billed Starthroat, and that minute mega, the Snowcap.

A Flurry of Birds

If you do pay a visit, be prepared, the birds often happen fast and furious! One after another and sometimes, all at once. So as not to miss anything, your best bet is to let go and do what the guide says. A good guide will get you on the birds that need to be seen at that moment instead of looking at species more likely to be seen later the same day or on other days.

Be forewarned, whether birding with a guide or not, sensory overload is likely! Just try to stay focused, try to recall field marks, and wait until a lull in the bird action to check your birding app for Costa Rica or field guide book. Trust me, if you try to look up each bird as you see them, you could miss a lot.

As with any site, the fast birding at Nectar and Pollen varies but often includes troops of Black-faced Grosbeaks and Carmiol’s Tanagers, other tanagers in fruiting trees, euphonias, hummingbirds, parrots doing flybys and more. It’s bird action at its best!

Red-fronted Parrotlet and Other Uncommon Species

Although you can’t expect it on every visit, this is a perfect site to see the rare Red-fronted Parrotlet fly past in the morning and late afternoon. Watch for them from the small hill in the pasture while also enjoying views of Long-tailed Tyrant, Cinnamon, Rufous-winged, Black-cheeked, and Smoky-brown Woodpeckers, and other species.

If you walk the forest trail, keep a close eye out for Olive-backed Quail-Dove on the ground, Dull-mantled Antbird in the ravines, and White-flanked Antwrem and other small birds in understory mixed flocks. The umbrellabird and other rare species are also always possible!

Tanagers and White-vented Euphonia

The number of tanagers can vary but fruiting trees usually attract Green and Shining Honeycreepers, Scarlet-rumped and Crimson-collared Tanagers, and various other species. Emerald, Silver-throated, Speckled, and Bay-headed are regular and once in a while, Rufous-winged, Black-and-yellow, and even Blue-and-Gold Tanagers occur! On a recent visit, although the tanager scene was somewhat subdued, we still had uncommon White-vented Euphonia and several other nice birds.

As you may have surmised, the birding at Nectar and Pollen can be pretty darn good. The same goes for bird photography, especially for hummingbirds, Rufous Motmot, and tanagers. Visits must be arranged in advance but that’s easy enough to do. Just send Miguel a message at the Nectar and Pollen Facebook page and give him the date of your visit. A visit for one to two people costs $25 per person, $20 per person for groups of three or more. If you go, please leave a comment with your sightings or link to eBird list at the end of this post. I hope to see you there!

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The Current Situation for Birding in Costa Rica- Tips and Highlights

Its February, 2023 and in Costa Rica, there’s a whole lot of birding going on. This current high season, I have seen several birding groups in various places and many an eBird list, perhaps even more than in previous pre-Covid years. It’s wonderful to see such a large number of folks enjoying the exciting avian delights found in this birdy nation. If you will be visiting Costa Rica soon, I hope these current tips and highlights will help with your trip.

The Medio Queso wetland

The name might translate to “half cheese” but when it comes to birding, this wetland is the full monty. Always good, lately, boat trips with Chambita have been even better. While enjoying the avian scenery on just such a tour last week, we were dazzled by flights of Fork-tailed Flycatchers, point blank looks at the pseudo sparrow Yellow-breasted Crake, Pinnated Bitterns, very local Nicaraguan Grackles, and more. Other recent trips have also had Jabirus in flight and other uncommon species. To sign up, contact me at information@birdingcraft.com. I’ll put you in touch with Chambita.

Bare-necked Umbrellabird and Good Stuff at and Near Arenal Observatory Lodge

Sites at and near the Arenal Observatory Lodge are always good for birding. Recently, our group had a female mega umbrellabird right from the feeder deck. As this major bird tends to do, it snuck in with nary a sound to perch on a nearby branch for a few minutes before continuing on its merry way. If my friend Alec Humann had not been looking for birds away from the feeder, we could have easily missed it!

If you find yourself on the deck at Observatory Lodge, remember to keep looking around, keep checking trees for other birds, there might be an umbrellabird nearby. On that note, if you can walk up and down stairs, I suspect that the river trail below the feeder area could be good for it. Note that a male has also been recently seen on the Waterfall Trail.

Other extra nice bird species in that area have included Great Black Hawk seen on the road to the lodge, Fasciated Tiger-Heron frequenting the river just before the main entrance to the lodge, Black-crested Coquette at the Casona, Black-and-White Owls near lights at the reception (check trees near the lights), and White-throated Shrike-Tanager on the Waterfall Trail among many other species.

Crested and Spectacled Owls and Other Delights at Cope’s

Birding with Cope was wonderful as always and the main feeder watching area now features a concrete floor. We had wonderful feeder action there, King Vulture and Double-toothed Kite in flight from the road in front of Cope’s, and both Crested and Spectacled Owls in the forest.

Find the Crested Owls…

Speaking of much desired birds, although we did not see Black-and-White Hawk-Eagle, other birders have! Cope was telling me he suspects that one may be using the forest he brings birders to with some regularity and he has also seen it fly over his house (talk about a good yard bird!).

Spectacled Owls at Cope’s forest.

Cedar Waxwings are in the House

2023 is the year for Cedar Waxwings in Costa Rica. Yes, if you come from North America, big deal, you see waxwings all the time. However, if you are visiting Costa Rica from elsewhere, you just might be interested in seeing this bonus bird. I’m not sure if there has ever been a year when so many have been seen in Costa Rica; there have been flocks of a couple dozen to well over 100 birds.

They have mostly been spotted in the highlands and parts of the Central Valley and seem to be attracted to fruiting figs. Since they do move around quite a bit, the best way to find them is to check eBird for recent sightings and listen for their distinctive, high-pitched whispering calls, especially when birding the high elevations, sites around the Central Valley, and on the Pacific slope.

Cocora Butterfly Garden

The butterflies are lovely but this garden has a much more. For example, a few weeks ago, they had an umbrellabird and one or more could still be around, we had an Ornate Hawk-Eagle fly right over us, sicklebill has been visiting Heliconias there, and there’s lots of hummingbirds to see. In addition, they have a trail that accesses excellent middle elevation forest and serve absolutely fantastic coffee (it truly is fantastic). The trail is only for the physically fit but if you can do it, you could see any number of uncommon species. When I get a chance, I hope to do a dawn survey on that trail. I’ll let you know what I find!

Papa’s Place

Saving one of the best places for last, this is a new place in the Arenal area that I can’t recommend enough. Located just outside of Fortuna, Papa’s Place is actually the home of Gerald and Priscilla, a local, friendly birding couple who offer up a unique blend of Costa Rican hospitality and excellent birds.

After a warm welcome, we sat down to watch the wooded riparian zone out back. The birding was nonstop and we were treated to an avian show that featured Golden-olive, Rufous-winged, Black-cheeked, and Cinnamon Woodpeckers, Olivaceous Piculet, Double-toothed Kite, and various other species. Ironically, one of our best birds was a rare wintering juvenile female Cerulean Warbler! We also had looks at several tanagers including Plain-colored and the rare Rufous-winged Tanager, as well as other birds.

Although we did not see them, White-fronted Nunbird can also show and they have also seen Yellow-eared Toucanet and various raptors. The birding was great but to top off the experience, we had a delicious lunch that featured authentic country Tico cuisine. Cooked with care, this food was a step far and above from the food we had been eating at hotels (which wasn’t bad by any means!), and some of our group also had fun learning how to make tortillas. Authentic, great birds in friendly surroundings, and supporting fellow birders, really, I can’t recommend the experience enough. I look forward to my next visit.

I could mention a lot more; when it comes to birding in Costa Rica, there’s always more to say. Suffice to say that when you go birding here, you will see a lot, especially when you visit the right places. To learn how to see more birds in every corner of Costa Rica, support this blog by purchasing my 900 page ebook, “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica”. I hope to share birds in Costra Rica with you soon!

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5 Beautiful Benefits of Relaxed Birding in Costa Rica

Birding isn’t just watching birds. It can be a fun and stress-free outlet, an educational journey, and a personal challenge. However, no matter how many birds you see, no matter how you experience birds, birding is always a key way to relax and connect with your natural surroundings. A relaxed birding trip is when you go birding but you also sample and enjoy local cuisine, maybe spend some time in the pool, maybe spend more time in one bird-rich place to watch bird at your own pace.

Costa Rica is ideal for relaxed birding. It’s a place where relaxation and nature connection go hand in hand, especially for birders with non-birding partners. Beautiful tropical scenery and an incredible number of birds make this friendly country ideal for a relaxed birding trip.

The following are 5 additional benefits of relaxed birding in Costa Rica:

Beautiful Garden Birds

In Costa Rica, you don’t have to go far to see a lot of exotic, beautiful birds. Some photographers visit this birdy country and take pictures of a couple hundred species without setting one foot on a single trail. Stay in the right gardens and fruiting trees can host euphonias, tanagers and other small species.

Emerald Tanager is regular at the Arenal Observatory Lodge!

Incredibly, stunning Golden-hooded Tanagers are also regular garden birds!

Flowering bushes and other plantings attract hummingbirds. The Violet-headed Hummingbird is one of several glittering species regular at many sites in Costa Rica.

More Protected Habitat Makes for Easier Birding

Costa Rica is such an excellent place for easy-going birding because there’s a lot of easily accessible and protected habitats. Even better, several quality eco-lodges are found within or next to such protected areas. It’s why Costa Rica is an easy place to see large birds like Great Curassow and Crested Guan,

A male Great Curassow.

and even critically endangered mega species like the Great Green Macaw.

In general, more habitat means more birds without having to go on long, muddy hikes.

Fun for the Non-Birding Partner

Relaxed birding works very well when visiting Costa Rica with a non-birding partner. This type of birding means that you can get in fantastic birding in the morning and enjoy the rest of the day doing fun things with your partner. It can also mean birding for most of the day while your partner does other activities. There’s always plenty of fun stuff to do in Costa Rica.

Birding Boat Trips

Don’t feel like going on a long, hot hike? You aren’t alone! Boat trips in the right places are an excellent substitute. Float down a tropical river and you can see everything from waterbirds to trogons, raptors, and a roosting Great Potoo.

Look close and find the Great Potoo!

You Still See Lots of Great Birds

This is probably the best thing about relaxed birding in Costa Rica. When a well planned, easy going birding tour in Costa Rica stays in the right key places, many species are seen right at the lodge, even birds like trogons, motmots, toucans, parrots, and literally hundreds of other species.

To learn more about carefully planned, fun and relaxed birding tours in Costa Rica taking place in January, 2023, contact me today at information@birdingcraft.com

I hope to see you here!

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Costa Rica Bird Photography with Benefits- Tawny-faced Quail at Laguna del Lagarto

Tawny-faced-Quai

Bird photography in Costa Rica is fantastic. Sure, we could say the same about dozens of destinations and there might be excellent bird photography right in your own backyard but what you might not have birds like

yellow-throated-toucan

Yellow-throated Toucan

and Orange-chinned Parekeet.

You may not have access to a site that offers more than typical feeder species. In Costa Rica, one such top choice for bird photography is Laguna del Lagarto. It’s a place I have blogged about on more than one occasion and with good reason; this classic Costa Rica eco-lodge offers world class bird photography benefits that can be tough to beat, one of those being a chance to capture images of Tawny-faced Quail.

This image was taken at Laguna del Lagarto by local birder, Luis Ricardo Rojas.

Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of this beautiful little ground birds, if you haven’t seen many pictures. On account of its shy behavior and dense, dark rainforest habitat, this small quail is one of the most infrequently seen bird species in Costa Rica. However, thanks to the efforts of local birding guide Juan Diego Vargas and Laguna del Lagarto, chances to see Tawny-faced Quail have greatly improved. Even better, not only can you see it, you have a fair chance of getting pictures too!

The problem with seeing Tawny-faced Quail is that this species doesn’t like to be seen. This isn’t one of those birds that will walk into the open, it’s not a bird that takes many chances. In general, small groups carefully move over the forest floor and then freeze at the slightest hint of danger. Since their plumage acts as perfect camouflage in the dark forest interior, you could easily walk right past them and have no idea the bird was sitting still, just a few meters away.

Most birds that live in the understory of the rainforest are tough to see, most are experts at staying hidden. However, most also give whistled songs and calls that reveal their presence. Most do that but much to a birder’s chagrin, the Tawny-faced Quail bucks the trend. This little quail rarely sings and instead of using its voice in the morning, it often waits until dusk and even them, it calls just a few times.

The timing and manner of its song makes this bird incredibly easy to overlook. Even worse, in Costa Rica, this quail seems to sing more often during just two months; May and June. The bird can also be found and heard at other times of the year but based on the experience at Laguna del Lagarto, the most reliable time to see them is definitely during May and June. This is when they call the most and this is when Laguna offers your best chance to see them.

We all know that no bird is guaranteed, anything can happen while birding but I also know that May and June is when most of the local guides have visited Laguna to see and photograph this quail. I know that Laguna has found roosting sites for this bird and have followed careful protocols to make sure every visiting birder sees them. During the past two years, when a roosting quail at Laguna is known, the success rate of visiting birders for seeing this bird has been very high.

Perhaps roosting birds will also be found at other times of the year? Hopefully, but at the moment, May and June are the best months to book a trip to Laguna del Lagarto and photograph this bird. It’s one of several excellent side benefits when visiting Costa Rica for bird photography. Laguna being one of the better places for bird photography in Costa Rica, some of those other benefits include close photo opps for toucans, tanagers, tityras, puffbirds, and a host of additional rainforest species like the stunning Green Honeycreeper shown below. I know I’m looking forward to the next time I visit this special place!

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The Best Places to See Toucans in Costa Rica are Also Great Places for Birding

yellow-throated-toucan

There are 6 species of toucans in Costa Rica and birders visiting Costa Rica will be pleased to learn that most of them are fairly common! Colorful, big, and bold, these fancy birds are larger than life. On account of their fantastic appearance, these big-beaked birds have acted as inspiration for characters on everything from cereal boxes to marketing for a number of tropical destinations (Costa Rica included).

In Costa Rica, these surreal and wonderful birds occur in nearly every type of forested habitat. Three species live in the lowland tropical rainforests on the Caribbean slope. They include the bird with the rainbow-colored bill, the Keel-billed Toucan,

birding Costa Rica Keel-billed Toucan

the Yellow-throated Toucan (formerly known as the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan and the Black-mandibled Toucan),

and the Collared Aracari.

This Collared Aracari was at Dave and Dave’s.

Just above the lowlands, the elusive Yellow-eared Toucanet lurks in the foothill and lower middle elevation forests of the Caribbean slope.

Not nearly as common as the other toucan species, pairs of this special bird prefer to forage inside the forest and rarely come into the open. Some of the better spots for them are forests in the Arenal area, Volcan Tenorio, and the foothills of Braulio Carrillo National Park.

Higher still, we have a chance at seeing the beautiful Northern Emerald Toucanet. Smaller than other members of its family, this pint-sized green toucan is a common denizen of highland forests. Listen for its barking call and you might see one.

Birding in Costa Rica

It helps that they also visit fruit feeders!

On the Pacific slope, Collared Aracaris also occur in forests of the Nicoya Peninsula and in some parts of Guanacaste. They share some space with Keel-billed Toucans in areas of moist forest, including sites in the Central Valley.

In the Central Valley and southern Pacific slope, Collared Aracaris are replaced by the flashy Fiery-billed Aracari. This near endemic is especially common in areas with humid forest. It shares such places on the south-Pacific slope with the Yellow-throated Toucan.

birding Costa Rica

Although these toucan species occur at many sites, the places where they are most common are areas with extensive tropical forests replete with large trees used for nesting and as food sources. Since toucans are also omnivorous, their populations fare much better in high quality habitats that can provide them with plenty of fruit and small creatures. In Costa Rica, that would mean larger areas of mature tropical forest.

This is why we tend to find more toucans in Costa Rica in places like the Osa Peninsula, lowland and foothill rainforests in the Sarapiqui region, near Boca Tapada, Rincon de la Vieja, Monteverde, and forests in Limon province. More toucans usually means more of other wildlife because good numbers of these real life cartoony birds are indicative of healthy tropical forest that likewise provides habitat for hundreds of other birds, plants, and animals.

Such sites can be good places to look for manakins, cotingas, tinamous, and many other species that require healthy forest, including two species that prey on toucans; Ornate and Black-and-white Hawk-Eagles.

To find more toucans and the best places to see birds in Costa Rica, use this Costa Rica bird finding guide. I hope you have a wonderful birding trip to Costa Rica and hope to see you here!

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San Luis Adventure Park- Birding In Costa Rica At Its Best

emerald tanager

Where’s the best birding in Costa Rica? The answer can be elusive; it depends on the observer, what you want to see and how you want to experience Costa Rica birds.

Sunbittern
Birds like the Sunbittern for example.

Even so, by merit of outstanding habitat or propensity to facilitate seeing lots of cool birds (aren’t they all?), some places stand out . One such place has been making the local birding news for the past few months. It isn’t new and the birds I am about to mention have always been there but because the site is not on the regular birding circuit, it has been very much overlooked.

That place is the San Luis Adventure Park and if you can fit it into your birding trip to Costa Rica, by all means do it. San Luis was started some 15 years ago by four local guys who wanted to start a tourism business in beautiful surroundings. They picked a site with cloud forests located between the city of San Ramon and the tourism hotspot of Fortuna. To make a long story short, this ended up being the perfect choice both for their business venture and for local wildlife. Their business has been successful, and on account of being aware of the importance of protecting biodiveristy and fostering a conservation mindset, the birding in the cloud forests of San Luis is as accessible as it is fantastic.

Some reasons why you might want to include the San Luis Adventure Park on your next trip to Costa Rica:

High Quality Middle Elevation Forest

The better the forest, the better the birding. Another way of saying that is that the more mature and extensive the forest, the more diverse and healthy it is. Mature tropical forest composed of massive trees provides the array of microhabitats and food sources necessary to sustain the full complement of bird species that have evolved to live in such habitats. For the birder visiting San Luis Canopy, this translates to chances at seeing large and speciose mixed flocks, Collared Trogon, Purplish-backed Quail-Dove, Dull-mantled Antbird, and many others (including Sunbittern along the river).

Collared Trogon

Access

San Luis isn’t the only site with high quality forest but it’s one of the few places where such habitat is easily accessible. Located on the main route that links San Ramon to Fortuna, it only takes a bit more than an hour to drive there from the airport, or an hour and 30 or 40 minutes from Fortuna. This also makes it easily accessible by public bus.

Some birding is possible from the parking area but the best birding is along the trail. This is a well maintained trail with some areas of steps and several bridges that allow views into the forest canopy. It starts at a deck that often has tanagers coming in to fruit and shortly after, accesses a hummingbird viewing area. Folks with mobility issues won’t be able to do the trail but they can still see quite a few tanagers and other birds from the viewing deck and even from the parking area.

Photos of Tanagers

Speaking of tanagers, this is one of the best sites to get close looks and shots of Emerald, Bay-headed, and Speckled Tanagers.

Speckled Tanager

Tawny-capped Euphonia is also regular and when nearby trees have fruit, the viewing deck can also be good for Black-and-Yellow and Blue-and-Gold Tanagers! Both of these special species are also regular on the forest trail.

Hummingbirds

The hummingbird viewing area can host Brown Violetear, Green-crowned Brilliant, Violet Sabrewing , Crowned Woodnymph, and other species. Once in a while, Snowcap occurs and Green Hermit, Green Thorntail, White-bellied Mountain-Gem, and Coppery-headed Emerald are regular.

Coppery-headed Emerald
Coppery-headed Emerald is one of several species commonly seen at feeders.

Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo

Whoah! Yes, one of the mega of mega tough birds to see can be encountered at San Luis Canopy! Not every day but often enough to be worth mentioning. Recently, two were seen by many visiting birders as they foraged at an antswarm. Although they didn’t show for Mary and I yesterday (no antswarms were present), I’m sure they will be seen again.

The chances of seeing a ground-cuckoo at San Luis are boosted by local guides who keep an eye out for them on the trails and relay that information back to the front desk. In fact, before we entered the trail, one of the co-owners, Nelson, was very helpful in providing us with information about the latest sightings and told us that if we wanted, we could also wait at the tanager viewing area until their guides could tell us if they were seeing the cuckoos.

Bare-necked Umbrellabird

Whoah! Yes, another major mega occurs at San Luis! Although one or two might be present year round, this very special bird seems to be much more likely and quite reliable from November to January. It can occasionally show near the parking area but is far more likely on the trail. Once again, the local guides let the front desk know where they have been seeing them.

Raptors

As is typical of sites with extensive, quality forest, San Luis can also be very good for rainforest raptors. Over the years, I have seen such species as Barred Forest-Falcon, Bicolored Hawk, White Hawk, Double-toothed Kite, Barred Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk, and Black and Ornate Hawk-Eagles. This can be an especially good site for the latter fancy raptor, mostly on sunny days when it calls during soaring flight.

ornate hawk eagle
What an Ornate Hawk-Eagle looks like in high soaring flight.

Given its easy access, the San Luis Adventure Park makes for an excellent day trip from the Central Valley, or as a great way to start or end a birding trip to Costa Rica, especially for birders traveling to and from Fortuna. As a bonus, this excellent site is also near other very good areas for birding including Finca Luna Nueva, the Pocosol Station, cloud forests near San Ramon, and Lands in Love. I hope you visit this special place someday, until then, happy birding from Costa Rica.

To support this blog and prepare for your birding trip to Costa Rica, get “How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica” – a 700 plus page ebook that acts as a site guide and birding companion for Costa Rica.

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Costa Rica Birding at Cinchona and Route 126: 3 Strategies

Birding as a kid in the 70s and 80s was about using cheap but precious binoculars to look at birds in the backyard, in nearby fields, and at state parks. It was about checking out and studying bird books in the public library and back at home, trying to see the differences among sparrows streaked with differents shades of brown, gazing at photos of Prairie Warbler, Indigo Bunting, and other birds (in books), and wondering how I could see them.

It was also about seeing how I could reach places outside of my backyard and joining local trips with an older birding crowd. I went on day trips with the Buffalo Ornithological Society and the Ranbow County Birders to local reserves to look for warblers in May, shorebirds in August, and migrating hawks in early spring. Living in Niagara, we had a fantastic gull trip and were fortunate to have Canadian friends that treated us to 9, even 10 owl species in a day in cold, snowy places. There were different levels of interest but the way we went birding was pretty much the same.

A trip usually started with a meeting time and place that tended to be a McDonald’s parking lot. That way, folks could use the restroom, get a coffee, and maybe a quick breakfast. Before GPS and associated modern digital wayfaring, the big golden arches came in handy as an easy and obvious point of reference. From our meeting spot, the trip leader would convoy us to our morning birding stops and we would watch birds, talk about how to identify them, and maybe look at some through scopes. We would check out field marks in field guides, maybe a Perterson or a Golden Guide. After the Nat. Geo. became available, that fantastic storehouse of updated birding knowledge took center stage. It was a huge help with identification, especially with gulls and shorebirds. We would bring our own lunches and at some later point, say our goodbyes and head back home.

This was how most birding trips were. It was birding without digital cameras, apps, nor any access to broader, collated information about sightings and advanced identification. In other words, birdwatching was just that; watching birds, and there was a big emphasis on field identification. There had to be. The birding community was still figuring out how to identify all sort of things and didn’t have any immediate picture taking devices to check the birds we had seen. Sometimes, people would bring print-outs of articles on identification. When Kenn Kaufman’s book on advanced bird identification was published, that fantastic resource also found a place in the car. Birding was often about getting good looks as fast as you could, knowing what to look for, taking notes and maybe making field sketches.

Since those pre Internet days, birding has evolved and expanded into a many-faceted hobby. The birding spectrum includes everything from watching birds to simply watch them and not worry much about their names, solely taking pictures of birds, and using every technolgical resource on hand to race and see as many species as possible. People also watch birds for other reasons but no matter how you go with the birding flow, in Costa Rica, everyone is welcome at the birding table.

Birds like the stunning Crimson-collared Tanager are waiting for you.

Costa Rica has enough birds and birding sites to please every aspect of the hobby. One of several choice areas to visit for any degree of birding or bird enjoyment or bird photography is Cinchona and Route 126. Situated around an hour or less from San Jose, this route provides access to several habitats, each of which have their fair share of birds. Cinchona is the name of a small settlement on that road where a small restaurant with a wealth of birds is located. It’s called the “Cafe Colibri” or “Mirador San Fernando“.

More than a dozen hummingbird species, tanagers, Black Guan, quetzal, Flame-throated Warbler and other highland endemics, Cinchona and Ruta 126 has enough birds and birding sites to please all aspects of birding. These are three strategies for a day of birding in this area, each tailored to a distinct manner of birding:

Focusing on Birds in Costa Rica and Not Much Else

I admit, this is the birding I have usually done, the birding I prefer to do because it pushes me to concentrate on my surroundings, to listen and look closer and become enveloped by natural surroundings. This type of full scale birding makes for some nature connection at its finest. If you bird like this on Ruta 126 and Cinchona, there are a couple of ways to start your long yet exciting day.

If you can’t sleep, at some pre-dawn hour, drive up the road towards Poas Volcano as far as you can go. Listen and look for Bare-shanked Screech-Owl and Dusky Nightjar. Keep an ear out for the less common tooting whistles of Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl and be aware that Unspotted Saw-whet might also occur up there (it has yet to be documented from Poas but you never know..).

Roosting Bare-shanked Screech-owls near Poas. This species is a common bird of highland habitats in Costa Rica.

From dawn to 9, get in roadside high elevation birding in that same area before making your way to Varablanca. Keep an eye out for Black Guan, quetzals, silky-flycatchers, and just about everything else. Make sure to stop at the Volcan Restaurant and enjoy a coffee and a snack while watching the hummingbird feeders. Still need Scintillant Hummingbird? Maybe Magenta-throated Woodstar? Check out the Porterweed bushes in the parking lot for the Corso farm.

When you reach Varablanca, make the turn towards Sarapiqui, drive downhill for a little bit and turn right on the San Rafael Road. Bird forest patches there and watch for Dark Pewee, Golden-bellied Flycatcher, and various other cloud forest species.

At some point, head back to Ruta 126 and keep driving downhill. You could make stops at the Peace Waterfall to look for American Dipper and and other species, and at one or more overlooks to watch for Ornate Hawk-Eagle and other soaring raptors.

Ornate Hawk Eagle is uncommon but regular in this area.

Arrive at Cinchona just before noon. If you visit on a weekend, the cafe could be crowded. From January to March, it might also be crowded with birders. Find a table, order some food and enjoy the avian show.

While keeping an eye out for both barbets, Black-bellied Hummingbird, and White-bellied Mountain-gem, don’t forget to check the undergrowth and nearby vegetation for surprise birds like a quail-dove or two, Middle American Leaftosser, Black-faced Solitaire, and other species. Make sure to support this important, birder friendly place with a donation.

Post Cafe Colibri, watch for perched Bat Falcon and soaring raptors as you continue driving downhill. For the rest of the afternoon, you can’t go wrong with birding Virgen del Socorro (four wheel drive), Mi Cafecito, and lower foothill birding on the San Miguel-Socorro Road. Checking streams could yield Faciated Tiger-Heron and other nice birdies.

Finish off the day by relaxing at Albergue del Socorro or further on in the Sarapiqui lowlands with a cold beer, or dinner, or counting the 100 plus species you have seen.

Bird Photography in Costa Rica

You still want an early start but unless you want to take a stab at capturing images of night birds, pre-dawn birding won’t be necessary. You might even want to stop for breakfast at Freddo Fresas. That way, you can also set up in their gardens just across the road.

birding Costa Rica

Although you can do bird photography on the road up to Poas, if you can, I suggest saving high elevation photography for places like Batsu or other spots in the Dota Valley. Whether you stop at Freddo Fresas or not, you may want to check out the hummingbird bushes in the parking area of the Corso farm and ice creamery. Further on, make your way down Ruta 126 towards Sarapiqui and on to Cinchona and spend a good few hours there. Make sure to buy lunch and also give them a donation of at least $10 per person. They may also charge a small photography fee. Whatever you do, please do what you can to support this important, fantastic, locally owned place. They have suffered tragedies, worked very hard to rebuild after being destroyed by an earthquake in 2009, and have supported birding and bird photography for many years.

Post Cinchona, keep an eye out for perched and soaring raptors on the drive downhill. The next best stop for photography would probably be Mi Cafecito. Although photo options vary, the area of the canyon overlook can have toucans, guans, tanagers, and other species at fruiting trees. Be careful on that cement trail, it can be very slippery!

After Mi Cafecito, head to your hotel in the Sarapiqui lowlands. To maximize photo opps, you may also want to skip Mi Cafecito altogether and visit Dave and Daves, or just shoot at your hotel.

Dave and Daves

Easy-Going Birding in Costa Rica

If you just feel like seeing whatever you can see, you should still get up early but you won’t need to rush out the door. If you are staying at a place like Villa San Ignacio, enjoy some nice easy birding in their gardens before and during a tasty breakfast. After that, drive up towards Poas and stop at Freddo Fresas to visit their gardens and perhaps buy some strawberry bread for an afternoon snack.

After checking out the gardens, continue on towards Varablanca and start driving downhill towards Sarapiqui on Ruta 126. Stop at one or two overlooks (with small parking areas), scan for flying raptors, and enjoy the scenery. Further on, if you feel like seeing various rescued wildlife in a somewhat zoo-like setting in beautiful surroundings and nice trails, visit the La Paz Waterfall Gardens (there is an entrance fee). If not, continue on, make an optional stop at the Peace Waterfall and then visit the Cafe Colibri at Cinchona.

The Cafe Colibri is a fantastic, reliable place for getting good shots of Silver-throated Tanager.

Pick a table, order some food and drinks, and enjoy the birds. Take your time and keep watching, see how many species you can find! You might also want to browse their souvenirs and pick out some quality organic chocolate before easing on down the road. Please give a donation to help support this special place.

Further downhill, if you feel like walking a short trail in foothill rainforest, visit Mi Cafecito and walk to the overlook (be careful of slippery trail conditions). This place is also an excellent spot to take a coffee tour. After Mi Cafecito, continue on or head back to your hotel.

No matter how you watch birds, in Costa Rica, there’s a heck of a lot to see. For example, on the route mentioned above, over the years, I have seen more than 330 species. You won’t see all of them there in one day, but you can expect to see a lot and if you visit the Cafe Colibri at Cinchona, the norm has been close, prolonged views of fantastic tropical bird species.

To learn more about birding routes in Costa Rica, sites, and how to find and identify more birds, prepare for your trip with How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica. I hope to see you here!

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10 Full Days of Fantastic Birding in Costa Rica January-Feb., 2022 – One Spot Left!

The Costa Rica birding season will be here soon. For some lucky folks, it’s already happening. Those fortunate birders have been enjoying the benefits of birding in Costa Rica with views of everything from shy Yellow-breasted Crakes to mega Bare-necked Umbrellabird and hawk-eagles. The usual magnificent mix of glittering hummingbirds and tanagers are also being seen along with

Resplendent Quetzal– a true world mega.

Would you like to start your year of birding with ten days full of fantastic birds in Costa Rica?

How about seeing Costa Rica hummingbirds like the Purple-throated Mountain-gem,

Fiery-throated Hummingbird,

Violet Sabrewing and chances at more than 30 other species.

Scarlet and Great Green Macaws

along with several other parrots and parakeets including

the endangered Yellow-naped Parrot.

While birding rainforests entertained by the haunting whistled songs of tinamous, antbirds, and woodcreepers, there will be chances to see such stunning tropical birds as

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Broad-billed Motmot

Broad-billed Motmot

Chesnut-colored Woodpecker

Chestnut-colored Woodpecker

Gartered Trogons and much more.

In cloud forest, Spangle-cheeked Tanagers await

along with cute Collared Redstarts

and Yellow-thighed Brushfinches.

Yellow-thighed Brushfinch

Boat rides in bird rich wetlands can have crakes,

the unique Sungrebe,

and the near endemic Nicaraguan Grackle.

Tropical dry forest offers another fantastic suite of birds to watch including stunners like the Turquoise-browed Motmot

Black-headed Trogon,

and Long-tailed Manakin.

On the tanager front, Costa Rica is blessed with beauties like the Crimson-collared Tanager,

Scarlet-rumped Tanager,

Emerald Tanager

Emerald Tanager

Speckled Tanager

Speckled Tanager

Red-legged Honeycreeper and more.

Toucans? Oh, there will be toucans too…

Keel-billed Toucan Laguna Lagarto

Hundreds of birds are waiting including the beauties shown above. Many will be seen (maybe 400 of them) on a fantastic birding tour in CostaRica scheduled for 10 days in January and February, 2022. Carefully designed by local experts to maximize bird variety at key sites, lucky participants will visit such hotspots as the Sarapiqui rainforests,

Cinchona,

Cinchona is a good site for the White-bellied Mountain-gem, a local regional endemic.

high elevation cloud forest,

the incredible wetlands of Cano Negro,

birding Costa Rica

the fantastic rainforests of Arenal,

and the Carara area.

The new Universal Trail at Carara.

If you are or know of a woman birder who would love to experience the fantastic birding of Costa Rica and be willing to share a room with another woman birder on this trip, send an email today to information@birdingraft.com

Fantastic tropical birding is waiting in Costa Rica, I hope to see you here!

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A Few Changes at San Luis Canopy and the Cinchona Hummingbird Cafe

Emerald Tanager

Birding sites come and go. Some get better, others become off limits or, in too many worse case scenarios, are converted to housing or sterile pineapple fields. As Joni Mitchell reminded us, new parking lots can also happen and while those frozen patches of tar might make a Ring-billed Gull cackle with glee, other birds would opt for trees.

Thanks to recent guiding, I visited two classic birding sites in Costa Rica and noted a few changes that have happened at both of them. Not to worry (!), the changes are neutral or for the better at the Colibri Cafe in Cinchona and the San Luis Adventure Park. Here’s what to expect:

The Cafe Colibri (aka Mirador de San Fernando, aka Cinchona, aka Cinchona Cafe, aka awesome spot to get mind blown by tropical birds)

Although a parking lot did happen at the cafe, fortunately, it did NOT pave over any bit of paradise. Having nudged my vehicle into undefined parking spaces at the Colibri Cafe for years, I can attest to the new parking area being an improvement. Even better, for kids and domestic animal lovers of all ages, the parking area is now accentuated by a pair of braying donkeys.

As birders are entertained by the occasional loud, toothed voices of corralled mules across the road, they now also have more seating room on the birding deck.

The deck removed a very small part of the garden but it shouldn’t really affect the birds and more space was needed anyways. The new set up also makes it easier to watch the main feeder, a star fruit buffet featuring such beautiful attendees as the Northern Emerald Toucanet, Prong-billed Barbet, Silver-throated Tanager, and eye-pleasing species.

The hummingbird scene hasn’t changed, it still provides the chance to witness Brown Violetears extending their “ears”, Coppery-headed Emeralds sputtering and flashing the white in the tails, Green Thorntails doing their best wasp imitation, Violet Sabrewings acting large, purple, and in charge, and more.

violet-sabrewing

I should also mention that the menu is still the same albeit with the addition of flavored coffees available from a flavored coffee machine (which, if my mochaccino was any indication, could be better).

From the very mouth of the owner, the current fees for bird photography are 1500 colones for a bit of time and 2500 for a few hours. Since this is still a pittance, if you visit, please be generous and donate accordingly to this classic, birder friendly spot. My eBird list from September 13, 2021.

The San Luis Adventure Park (aka San Luis, aka San Luis Canopy, aka dream close looks at tanagers)

Over the years, this neat little place nestled in cloud forest on the road between San Ramon and La Fortuna has grown. Although the owners haven’t paved over anything, a bit of habitat has been removed. It’s nothing substantial and won’t affect the birds too much but it does affect the birding, at least a little bit.

As San Luis has expanded ever so slightly, various fruiting trees that were located just behind and next to the buildings have been removed. It’s a shame because those very trees made it easy to watch a wealth of tanagers from the parking area, Blue-and gold included. Not all of the trees were cut down, several are still there, just not as many visible from the parking area. Even so, I can’t honestly blame the owners for removing a few trees.

A few had to be taken out because they interfered with their zipline operations. Others were cut so they could expand a deck and the restaurant. I wish there could have been a better solution but it’s hard to think of one. Since they still protect a sizeable area of cloud forest, I can think of a lot more enterprises much more worthy of criticism for actual unsustainable and destructive practices.

Not to mention, the deck that was built also happens to be where birders can view tanagers at close range, so there is that. Speaking of the tanager deck, while it used to be freely open to birders, a locked door has been installed and access is now only possible by paying $20 in the reception. If $20 seems too much to view Emerald Tanager at close range, not to worry, you get more for that price! This same fee also provides unlimited access to the San Luis Canopy trail; a maintained series of steps that descends a river and has several hanging bridges.

If you can handle a bunch of steps, hanging bridges, and great birding, this might be the trail for you! It accesses mature cloud forest that can feature close looks at various tanagers, excellent mixed flocks, Purplish-backed Quail-Dove, a chance at umbrellabird, and many other species. Since the fee also includes access to a hummingbird garden and close looks at Emerald, Speckled, Bay-headed Tanagers and other birds, I would say that’s money well spent.

San Luis is currently open seven days a week, from 8 until 4. The restaurant is good enough and currently features a typical Costa Rican menu (used to be buffet only). My eBird list from September 12, 2021.

As with every good birding site, I look forward to going back, I hope you make it there too. In the meantime, to learn more about identification tips and birding sites in Costa Rica, get ready for an amazing birding trip to Costa Rica with How to See, Find, and Identify Birds in Costa Rica. Happy fall migration!